All said and done, aside from all the gimmicks and defensive contributions, FPL is a game where you want your players, especially the budget forwards in your team, to score goals – they are the opposite of what you would find in our best budget defenders article. Sure, Salah scoring a hat-trick is cool, but nothing beats your £5.5m, 1.7% owned thrashing the ball into the net to finally get you that elusive green arrow. Ahhhh, maybe one day.
The Best £4.5m Forwards in FPL 2025-26
It’s rare that we have a £4.5m FWD that gets minutes off the bench, let alone one that starts for a team that was top of the league for xG for a decent chunk of last season. And he could potentially be the best £4.5m FWD… ever, come the end of the season.
Eli Juniour Kroupi (BOU)
Eli Junior Kroupi maintained an npxG+xAG/90 of 0.44 in Ligue 1 aged 17, then went on to record 1.13 G+A/90, with 22 goals, last season. He’s not going to displace Evanilson, but he could get a few minutes off the bench as Bournemouth’s CF and maybe even start a few games at LW. If so, he’d be the best cheap forward in the game.
The Best £5.0 Forwards in FPL 2025-26
Finding the best £5.0m forward this season is difficult, as this price point is unusually sparse, and for now, there’s really only one option. It’s a good thing that one option happens to be his club’s second-most-expensive signing ever, and potentially the biggest talent to come out of his country… ever?
Charalampos Kostoulas (BHA)
I’ve done hours of research on Kostoulas, and I’ve still had to triple-check that spelling and stop my furniture from levitating after I tried pronouncing his name. I think Kostoulas can be an unbelievable option down the line, but just isn’t one for the time being – Hürzeler likes to give new signings time to settle in, and Kostoulas (sighs at the character count) hasn’t featured in any of Brighton’s preseason friendlies yet.
I’d be surprised to see him start before GW6, at which point Brighton’s fixtures are pretty poor anyway.
The Best £5.5m Forwards in FPL 2025-26
The best £5.5m FWDs are all really, really good options. They just have one shared issue. It’s a big issue — but if they can get over that hurdle, it could be time for cheap thrills.
Joël Piroe (LEE)
Piroe’s minutes aren’t guaranteed, and he could well be benched come GW1. What a positive player introduction that is! But if Piroe starts, he’s the CF for arguably the most dominant Championship side ever, where he racked up 26 goal contributions at an expected rate of 0.63/90. Leeds also have good fixtures, facing EVE, ful, wol, and BOU in their first six.
Eliezer Mayenda OR Wilson Isidor (SUN)
Two good players, playing as the CF for a promoted side, meaning they’re talismanic? What could possibly go wrong? Everything, because there’s a world in which only one of the two starts, and predicting which one that is… is difficult.
Sunderland have signed a LOT of (good) attackers, as also seen in our best budget midfielders breakdown, so rotation is likely to be heavy as they find their footing in the league, and both Mayenda and Isidor should be looked at with uncertainty. That said, if we get an indication of who’s likely to start, Sunderland have some of the best fixtures in the league to start off with: WHU, bur, BRE, cry, AVL, nfo. Spicy.
Rodrigo Muniz (FUL)
*sighs* *bangs head against desk* because we have another brilliant bargain forward who’s a rotation risk. It’s a similar case to Piroe, really. If Muniz starts, you get a modern-day Barclaysman CF who could take penalties, has semi-decent fixtures for a decent team, and an npxG+xAG/90 of 0.61.
If Fulham don’t sign another striker, I imagine Muniz consistently starts over Raul at some point (what with Raul aging) but the crossover point is likely murky. At least it’s not like Muniz’s name rhymes with a notoriously bad finisher who plays for Liverpool and has let us down time after time after—oh.
The Best £6.0m Forwards in FPL 2025-26
Two talismanic midtable strikers who are no-nonsense shooters and love scoring goals for fun? Sign me up.
Thierno Barry (EVE)
Yer a wizard, Barry. Firstly, I think Thierno Barry is an utterly incredible forward and is automatically one of the league’s best strikers, meaning he’s one of the best cheap forwards in the game. He maintained an npxG+xAG/90 of 0.57 for Villarreal last season, racking up 15 G+A in the league, and he’s joining an Everton side with some of the best opening fixtures to start the season: lee, BHA, wol, AVL, liv, WHU.
I think you could make an argument that his xMins are a bit uncertain to start the season, given Moyes could opt to start Beto instead, but we should get a clear picture of this through pre-season.
Igor Thiago (BRE)
For a man with such a menacing name, Igor Thiago struggled a lot with injuries last season, meaning it was essentially a wash. The season before, he ran hot, scoring 16 goals at an npxG+xAG/90 of 0.69 — so he can clearly score goals. Plus, with Bryan Mbeumo gone and possibly Wissa on the way out, it’s fair to expect Thiago to get more minutes this season and be one of the hottest differentials on the game.
The issue is that he’s such an unknown quantity that we won’t know if this is the case until closer to the start of the season. But if he starts, Thiago’s a brilliant option for a team with brilliant fixtures: nfo, AVL, sun, CHE, ful, MUN.
Who Are The Best Budget Forwards in FPL 2025-26?
I think finding the best cheap forward is a bit of a task this season, given the uncertainty that surrounds all possible options. Junior Kroupi is a good pick simply for the cost savings, and Rodrigo Muniz could be pretty great — I think Marco Silva prefers him over Raul, but it’s hard to be bullish.
Ultimately, I’d say Barry is the singular best cheap forward, but we need some indication of his minutes before being comfortable enough to go there. It’s not like buying an Evertonian FWD broke everyone’s willpower last season.
Thanks for reading our article about the best budget forwards in FPL 2025-26.
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