Best center-backs for FIFA 23 Ultimate Team

Andrew Highton
van dijk passing a ball in fifa 23

In FIFA 23 Ultimate Team, the quest for the best center-backs is crucial to forging an impenetrable defense. This guide will spotlight the best quality CBs to fortify your defensive squad, ensuring robustness and dependability.

The role of center-backs is central to your defensive game plan, serving as the cornerstone of a competitive team.

A center-back’s core role is to stop the opposing team from scoring goals so you’ll ideally want to have some of the best players in the position on your team to make your defense as effective as possible. There are a lot of players to choose from in the game, so knowing who the best center-backs are can be extremely helpful.

With that in mind, here are the very best center-backs available in FIFA 23.

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Best center-backs in FIFA 23

The game’s player ratings and overalls are known to the world, meaning we can see the very best that the game has to offer, as well as the fastest.

Whether you have two or three center-backs, they ideally need to have a good balance of speed, height, strength, mobility, and tactical nous.

To do this, we present to you the best meta center-backs in FIFA 23, but also the quickest ones as well to cope with pacy forwards.

Best meta center-backs in FIFA 23

As we are now well into FIFA 23’s lifecycle and Team of the Year has crashed the market as usual, the cost of the game’s highest-rate CBs is quite low now – outside of maybe Van Dijk.

For the most part, though, you get what you pay for, and these are the best center-backs for a reason in FIFA 23 Ultimate Team.

These are the ratings for the best center-backs in FIFA 23.

Player NameOVRClub
Virgil Van Dijk90Liverpool
Marquinhos88PSG
Ruben Dias88Manchester City
Antonio Rüdiger87Real Madrid
Kalidou Koulibaly87Chelsea
Milan Skriniar86Inter Milan
Aymeric Laporte86Manchester City
Thiago Silva86Chelsea
David Alaba86Real Madrid
Niklas Sule85Borussia Dortmund
Matthijs de Ligt85Bayern Munich
Jules Koundé84Barcelona
Eder Gabriel Militao84Real Madrid
Lucas Hernandez84Bayern Munich
Sergio Ramos84PSG
Raphael Varane84Manchester United
Mats Hummels84Borussia Dortmund
Fikayo Tomori84AC Milan
Alessandro Bastoni84Inter Milan
Leonardo Bonucci84Juventus
Joel Matip84Liverpool
Giorgio Chiellini84Los Angeles FC
Stefan De Vrij84Inter Milan
Stefan Savić84Atletico Madrid
Bremer83Juventus
Pau Torres83Villarreal CF
Presnel Kimpembe83PSG
John Stones83Manchester City
Ronald Araujo83Barcelona
Diego Carlos83Aston Villa
Gerard Piqué83Barcelona
Cristian Romero83Tottenham Hotspur
Giménez83Atletico Madrid
Nico Schlotterbeck82Borussia Dortmund
Azpilicueta82Chelsea
Nacho Fernández82Real Madrid
Willi Orban82RB Leipzig

Fastest center backs to buy in FIFA 23

As well as the best-rated CBs in FIFA 23 Ultimate Team, you also need to know who the absolute fastest players are because sometimes ‘best’ doesn’t actually mean the best.

An 86-rated CB may have the defensive qualities to read the game, but if they’re slow, then someone like Mbappe will absolutely burn them with pace.

So here are the game’s absolute fastest defenders to consider for your Ultimate Team.

Player NameOVRPaceClub
Jeremiah St. Juste7693Sporting CP
Maxence Lacroix7787Wolfsburg
Lukas Klostermann8086RP Leipzig
Eder Gabriel Militao8486Real Madrid
Fikayo Tomori8486AC Milan
Jules Kounde8484Barcelona
Antonio Rudiger8782Real Madrid
Ben Godfrey7782Everton
Dayot Upamecano8182Bayern Munich
Josko Gvardiol8182RB Leipzig
Jurrien Timber8082Ajax
Kalidou Koulibaly8782Chelsea
Ibanez7982Roma
Jordan Teze7781PSV Eindhoven
Konstantinos Mavropanos7881Stuttgart
Lucas Verissimo7981Benfica
Raphael Varane8481Manchester United
Virgil Van Dijk9081Liverpool
Evan Ndicka8180Eintracht Frankfurt
Goncalo Inacio7980Sporting CP
Joe Gomez8180Liverpool
Kim Min Jae7980Napoli
Pierre Kalulu7880AC Milan
Presnel Kimpembe8380PSG
Min Jae Kim7980Napoli
Timo Hübers76801. FC Koln
Marquinhos8879PSG
David Alaba8679Real Madrid
Moussa Niakhaté7879Nottingham Forest
Kevin Danso7579RC Lens
Josip Šutalo7579Dinamo Zagreb
Bremer8378Juventus
William Saliba8078Arsenal
Milan Škriniar8078Inter Milan
Dávid Hancko7778Feyenoord
Ibrahima Konaté8178Liverpool
Ezri Konsa7978Aston Villa

That wraps up both of our comprehensive FIFA 23 CB lists with you now having full knowledge of the best and fastest center-backs in the game.

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