I’ve been playing a lot ofEA Sports FC 24since it launched, squeezing in matches between all the other games I’m trying to find time for. But while everyone else has been playing Ultimate Team and collecting cards, wheeling and dealing their way to success, I’ve been in my element in Career Mode. But after dipping into some online matches, there’s a drastic change I’d like to see - let me sign some women.
In EA Sports FC 24, the biggest conversation has been aroundthe introduction of women to Ultimate Team. There are some legitimate objections to this - Ultimate Team is about building your ultimate team, and that means collecting your favourite players past and present. If you don’t watch women’s football, then they won’t be in your top XI, and that means they feel like filler in the packs.
But I have seen enough conversation among online football fans to know that history, by and large, is not respected. People might know Maradona and Pele, but I’m less sure they know the works of Zico, Esuebio, or even more modern players like Hernan Crespo. We’ve also seen a lot of players used because they’re ‘meta’ rather than due to any innate popularity. Female players might not be as recognisable as their male counterparts, but when so many fans only know half the male players fromFIFAanyway, what does that matter? With deceased legends playing for you andKyle Walker in goal, realism is not the name of the game.
I’m not going to play Ultimate Team, but I still want to see what the fuss is about. So in the general online mode, between matches as my own Newcastle UTD and bouncing between Man City, Liverpool, Napoli, and Real Madrid to find my go-to five-star team, I played some matches as Chelsea Women. I first got into women’s football when Fran Kirby was England’s most electrifying player, and so with Newcastle having no women’s team of note until last season, Chelsea have been the team I most kept my eye on.
Instantly, I felt a connection with the team. Kirby, Sam Kerr, and most importantly, Lauren James all suited the way I played. Molly Bright was a rock at the back, and this felt like ‘my team’ for this season. Unfortunately, it’s harder to find women’s games on EA FC, so to play regularly I’ll need a men’s team too. But as I said, I mainly play Career Mode rather than Ultimate Team, so I can’t use them in my core game mode because it’s not ‘realistic’
But let’s be honest, realism is relative in football. A few years ago Newcastle beating PSG 4-1 in the Champions League with goals from the much-maligned Miggy Almiron, lanky and guileless defender Dan Burn, academy graduate and perpetually underrated Sean Longstaff, and the handsomest man in football Fabian Schar would have been unrealistic. It’s the type of game, the type of scoreline, you only get in FIFA. Now Villa and Brighton are in Europe, Newcastle top the group of death, and Chelsea are mid-table. Life comes at you fast.
In Career Mode, while you can’t sign the deceased or retired legends, it’s almost as unrealistic as Ultimate Team anyway. Newcastle might actually be in the Champions League now, but I won the competition with us on FIFA back when we were in the Championship. Over the years I’ve signed Edgar Davids, Thierry Henry, Frank Lampard, Ronaldinho, Robin Van Persie, Raheem Sterling, and Jude Bellingham for the Magpies. It’s not supposed to be a mode where you stay true to life.
There are plenty of female footballers already in the game, and who already have stats that have been made equivalent to the elite men. Adding them would be easy, and any backlash would be even more forced than it is for Ultimate Team, because as far as I know, I’m the only person in the world who still plays Career Mode.
Miguel Almiron has just been responsible for one of the best footballing nights of my life, but the truth is he’s not that good, especially on a game like EA FC with no room for romanticism. In Career Mode, I’ve sold him to fund a move for Real Sociedad’s Take Kubo, but given the chance I’d rather have Lauren James there. With Jamal Lascelles decided less heroic in EA FC than he has proven to be in real life against Man City and PSG, I’ve also had to sign Anel Ahmedhodžić as back-up, but wouldn’t I have loved Molly Bright in there instead? Newcastle aren’t in dire need of a Fran Kirby-type, but what the hell, let’s sign her anyway.
I realise another option would be to add a Women’s Career Mode. If I was Chelsea, I’d have all those players anyway, and could pair James with Salma Paralluelo. But I think we’re a long way off a robust enough mode that has all the required features since so few women’s teams are actually in the game. Making an entirely new Career Mode seems unlikely when the current one remains neglected. Adding a new feature to what’s already there seems more likely, and easier to do. Plus, until Newcastle get promoted out of the third tier, I can only be the Mags in the men’s mode.
It’s unlikely to ever happen, but only as unlikely as other suggested changes to Career Mode. Ultimate Team gets the lion’s share of attention in EA FC, but if the women can break new ground there, maybe there’s hope for it happening elsewhere.
