To a soccer fan uninitiated to the women’s game, Homare Sawa might not be a household name. But for anyone who played EA Sports FC, formerly the Fifa series, and its most popular mode, Ultimate Team, last year for any length of time, it would be impossible not to recognise her.
Sawa won 2011 Fifa Women’s Player of the Year and captained Japan to that year’s World Cup title, and her stellar career is captured in the game where she is ranked as an “Icon”, a status reserved for particular legends in the game. With her special Team of the Year card, she became the most popular choice in midfield, her relentless pressing and all-round game overwhelming men and women opponents alike.
Sawa was one of many past and present women’s players included in EA FC 24 that mixed with men on the pitch for the first time in Ultimate Team. The decision initially faced some backlash from a male-dominated fan base, with critics claiming it undermined authenticity, arguing that women could not realistically compete with men on the pitch, igniting familiar “woke” culture debates.
But EA maintained Ultimate Team had always been a “fantasy mode” that let users create teams made up of players who could never play with each other in real life. Ferenc Puskas died before Lamine Yamal was born and they can play together, so why could women not play on the pitch with men?
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At first seeing women and men competing against each other on the pitch felt strange, but it was implemented seamlessly. Women players were naturally smaller and lost more aerial battles, but they were more agile and their inclusion added more depth to squad selections. One year later and it has been accepted and embraced by the community of the bestselling video game in the UK and Ireland.
A standout moment for women players in the game came in February when a promotional campaign for Ultimate Team called Fantasy FC saw player ratings get upgraded depending on appearances, goals and clean sheets in real matches.
Sweden and Barcelona star Fridolina Rolfö had the chance of a significant upgrade if she played well in a stretch of four games. Social media was abuzz as people watched and reported on Barcelona’s games in Liga F, introducing new fans to the women’s game. Any marketer will tell you that name recognition is half the battle and Rolfö became one of the game’s most prized assets.
A post titled “Queen Fridolina” on Reddit showing Rolfö holding up her upgraded card is the sixth most upvoted post on EASportsFC subreddit in the past year, a community with 1.2 million members, while her Instagram post on the topic was met with a flurry of likes and comments from new fans.
One Reddit post with more than a thousand upvotes claimed “EAFC 24 is the biggest thing that happened to promote women’s football”, with hundreds of users commenting that they recognised or watched more women’s soccer because of the game. It is perhaps no surprise, then, that EA Sports were named Football Business of the Year at the Women’s Football Awards this year in recognition of adding women’s football to Ultimate Team.
Rolfö was invited to join EA Sports for their launch of this year’s game in Madrid, while for the London launch, Fara Williams, Missy Bo Kearns and Sue Smith walked along the “green” carpet alongside the likes of Gareth Bale, Cole Palmer and Eric Cantona.
“We have heard from many professionals that featuring in EA FC is one of the most exciting elements of a player’s career,” John Shepherd, the vice-president and general manager of EA Sports FC, told The Irish Times. “Many women players have told us that the profile they receive as individuals and their clubs and leagues get through EA Sports is paramount to the growth of the game.”
“Our ambition is to continue growing from a video game to a football platform and we believe that increasing awareness and love for the women’s football within the game will not only lead to more women playing EA Sports FC, but also football as a whole,” he said.
“We know that by giving women’s players the platform they deserve, we believe women’s football and the superstars within it will continue to grow in popularity.”
Shepherd says 2.9 billion online Ultimate Team squads included at least one female player in their starting XI across the world, where the most popular players are French legend Sonia Bompastor, Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas and Sawa. Ireland’s Katie McCabe received a special Team of the Year honourable mention card, while Denise O’Sullivan got a high-rated card included in Irish-related objectives around St Patrick’s Day.
This year, women are finally included in Career Mode, where you can control a single player or a full team from the top five women’s leagues, achieving game mode parity with men. EA FC 25 also allows managers to change career paths, like Phil Neville or Hervé Renard, by switching between male and female teams within a single playthrough.
Shepherd says EA Sports have a responsibility to help grow the women’s game across the world, citing examples of partnering with Uefa for a women in football leadership programme, sponsoring Women’s Champions League broadcasts and an initiative to empower young women from diverse backgrounds to work in the football industry.
“Overall, we’ve had great success with including women players across our game modes and we will continue to focus on increasing awareness and love for women’s football. Not just within the game, but also within football as a whole,” he said.
With Rolfö’s Barcelona team-mate Aitana Bonmati becoming the first woman to feature on front covers of EA FC, it is easy to forget how far women’s football has come. Before Fifa 16, it was impossible to play as a woman player in any mainstream soccer game, one of the sport’s greatest cultural influences and a gateway route into fandom of the real thing for many a child growing up. From once being absent to now being celebrated on a global stage, this progress marks a significant shift in representation that continues to grow.
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