Daryl Dike: Things to Know About FIFA’s Second Strongest Player

Daryl Dike
Dike is one strong man | Emilee Chinn/Getty Images

If, like most others, you only came across the name Daryl Dike due to his abnormal strength rating on FIFA 21, then you’re in the right place. As we didn’t have a scooby who he was either.

Hence why the following should come in handy.

Amid players raging about their below-par ratings in an expletive manner – y’know, like Romelu Lukaku – and us normal folk scanning the latest news to see who’s been given the biggest upgrade, the top ten listing for certain attributes always catches the eye.

Unsurprisingly, Adebayo Akinfenwa sits atop the strength listing, but seeing this relative unknown coming in at second place is worthy of a quick factile. And here it is.

Daryl Dike, Miles RobinsonDaryl Dike, Miles Robinson
Deekay, not Dike. | Alex Menendez/Getty Images

As he has stated – or just every time he introduces himself – it’s not pronounced ‘Dyke.

The ‘I’ is actually enunciated as a double ‘ee’ sound, with the final ‘e’ in the name pronounced like an ‘a’.

Thus, it’s ‘Dee-kay‘. Hope that clears up the little that was there to be explained.

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Now, considering he’s one point rating shy of Akinfenwa’s 97 strength rating, you might’ve expected Dike to be benching some stupidly heavy weights.

Instead, he shows off his quite reserved workout routine that involves no mad lifting.

He’ll be saving his secrets. That’s it. It’d be a waste telling the world how got 96 strength on FIFA, no fun in that.

Apparently.

It begs the question: what is blue ice cream? What flavour?

We can hypothesize and go with bubblegum? Then again it could just be vanilla with blue dye in it, which wouldn’t be very creative.

Right, onto football.

FBL-ENG-FACUP-BLACKBURN-WEST HAMFBL-ENG-FACUP-BLACKBURN-WEST HAM
Guess whose cousin he is!?!?! | AFP/Getty Images

Starting with the famous one, he is the cousin of West Ham legend Emmanuel Emenike. A joke obviously, but the Nigerian was a legend on the old versions of FIFA at least.

One of those annoyingly cheap, supremely fast and strong players who cost nothing and always did better in someone else’s team than yours.

Even closer to home, Dike has a brother and a sister who’ve all been involved in the Nigerian national sides, the latter of whom made two outings for Nigeria at the 2015 Women’s World Cup.

Andres Reyes, Daryl DikeAndres Reyes, Daryl Dike
No chance muscling him off the ball – if FIFA is to be believed. | Mark Brown/Getty Images

If you’re not familiar with how draft picks work in American sports, it’s essentially an opportunity for clubs/teams to choose unsigned players – usually from college sides – to join professional setups, done in a one pick at a time system.

Dike was chosen in the very first round (fifth overall) by his current side Orlando City in January. He made his debut in a pre-league tournament to ease football back after the its worldwide postponement, before making his MLS debut in August.

He’s hit the ground running, that’s for sure. Scoring on his MLS debut in a 3-2 defeat to Inter Miami, Dike followed that up with a brace just days later as Orlando secured a 3-1 victory over Nashville.

Getting in on the act with assists as well, he finished his first five MLS games with three goals and two assists, claiming the MLS Player of the Month Award for August 2020.

In total, he’s made just six MLS outings in his career, is 20 years old, but second in behind only Akinfenwa for strength rating on FIFA. Some trajectory this young striker has.

Let’