If you are talking about Master League then no it is alightly different. When you start you have three choices. You can either start with the usual master league players eg. minanda, espinas etc, you can start with a proper team, e.g you can start with man utd, or you can start with master league players but you can put in any three real players you want which would make it easier for you. After matches some players are given development points and if they get enough their stats will increase and if some old players are old and past it their their stats will gradually decrease. There the main changes that I have experienced so far, but I have only played about five matches.
As for the best player, it is really difficult to tell. You obviously have your world class players like Zidane and Henry, but at the moment it is difficult to tell who is the best player in the game.
Hope I've answered your questions