We cover a great many crossovers in our news section. However, these usually involve Fortnite and whichever brand, person, or media phenomenon is all the rage at the moment. Today, we have a very different crossover to present to you in FIFA 23, one that you may never have anticipated unless you idolize footballers as though they were literal superheroes. Do you get where I’m going with this yet?
Yes, EA is partnering with Marvel to reimagine the world’s favorite football stars as superheroes ahead of the launch of FIFA 23 in September. While the movement only currently concerns past footballers who have made an impression on the industry, we can assume the formula will be retained for use in other collaborative instances with today’s football stars.
Here’s a list of the footballers currently involved in the collaboration and the names of their superhero alter-egos:
- Landon Donovan of the USA takes up the shield of the Captain America-inspired The Brave.
- Chelsea Defender of legendary proportions Ricardo Carvalho is being immortalized as The impossible-to-surprise Anticipator.
- Former Man City midfielder Yaya Touré stands resolute as the Greek god-inspired The Citadel.
- Claudio Marchisio, the former Juventus midfielder, once more takes up his dressing room nickname and becomes Il Principino – The Little Prince.
- South Korea’s Park Ji-Sung dons an Iron Man-inspired suit to become Tigerheart.
Okay, so it’s an interesting collaboration with really awesome cover art, but what does it mean for the average player? Essentially, this collaboration merely results in a few skilfully created images of the stars as superheroes. These images will replace the real-world players’ photos – exclusively in FIFA 23’s Ultimate Teams mode.
There will also be numerous FIFA World Cup FUT Heroes items available in the FIFA 23 Ultimate Teams lootboxes. EA has also said that Marvel will even release an Online Marvel Heroes comic book at a later date. Marvel seems to really be invested in this collaboration.
The collaboration does, however, deem to be purely cosmetic and won’t impact gameplay much – or at all. While I have no issue with the glorification of former soccer stars who have left their names prominently etched into the very fiber of the industry, I don’t know if this collaboration in its current state is the way to do it. Hopefully, there is more to this collaboration than meets the eye. We’ll have to wait until FIFA 23 is released to find out.
In other FIFA news, we’ve got it on good authority that FIFA 23 will feature two prominent women’s soccer leagues.
