FIFA 17 is three months away, and we can’t help but feel there are some players whose likeness needs a facelift. Here, we’re counting down our top 10!
FIFA 17 is three months away and EA’s annual marketing is starting to dripfeed new information. There’s a brand new engine – Frostbite! – new graphics, slower gameplay and a fully playable story mode.
But here’s a simple question: are they improving the faces?
You see, not everyone in FIFA 16 looks good, and many of the world’s best young talent look downright terrible. So who are the faces – and names – that deserve a brand new… face? We’ve trawled through the game’s biggest clubs to pick out the candidates most deserving of a skin graft.
Read: Top 5: E3 takeaways from Day 1
This is important consumer information – don’t ever say we’re not commited to changing lives.
Dele Alli
As one of the standout players of this season’s Premier League and an intgral cog of the Three Lions’ midfield at the Euros, 19-year-old Dele Alli has enjoyed a meteoric rise. So meteoric, in fact, that the good fellows at EA haven’t been able to capture his likeness yet, as evidenced by the dodgy facsimilie above.
Anthony Martial
Manchester United spent 50 million pounds on Anthony Martial, a player most of the world hadn’t seen. United captain Wayne Rooney was one of them, admitting that he had never heard of the Frenchman before the signing. Evidently, neither had EA, as the Martial in-game looks nothing like the real thing.
All that’s set to change in FIFA 17, as Martial joins Reus, Hazard and Rodriguez on the cover. Cover stars traditionally receive the red carpet treatment, including buffed stats and an accurate facial scan. Expect a top-notch rendition of the speedy winger come FIFA 17.
Memphis Depay
Despite being the big-name summer signing of Manchester United’s 2015/2016 campaign, EA chiefs didn’t bother to capture Memphis Depay’s likeness in-game. That’s especially odd when you consider Depay was handed the coveted 7 jersey at the most famous football club in the world. Perhaps EA knew something we didn’t, because after a disastrous debut season, Depay has faded into obscurity and looks likely to leave United in the transfer window.
Neymar
He’s one of the three best footballers in the world, and yet every year, FIFA can’t be bothered to update Neymar’s face. In FIFA 16 (far left), as in previous years, Neymar sports a bulldog nose and cleft chin, and the same outdated hairstyle. In fairness, he does change fluff on his head every month.
Perhaps it’s because he’st he cover star of PES 2016 (centre), but EA has spent very little time on Neymar da Silva Santos Junior’s appearance. Given how much he spends on it in real life (right), we’re pretty sure he’s not too happy about that fact.
Philippe Coutinho
Come on EA: update Coutinho’s face! He’s one of the most exciting attacking midfielders in the Premier League, and yet every year, he’s saddled with the same old ropey hairstyle he rocked four years ago.
The Coutinho of 2014, ’15 and ’16 sports a decidedly slick ‘do with shaven sides and a short quiff on top.
Christian Fuchs
Not only is Fuchs a good footballer (he formed a part of the Leicester side that captured the Premier League trophy last season), he’s also a larger-than-life character with plenty to say. The Austrian captain has emerged from obscrutiy to become one of the most-talked about left backs in world football, and while his FIFA 16 rendition was wonky to say the least, we’re expecting a well-honed version of the footballer in 17.
Casemiro
A regular starter at Real Madrid under Zinedine Zidane in the centre of the park, Casemiro is a no-frills player who is developing a reputation in La Liga for being one of the best CDMs in the business.
However, the face he’s been given in FIFA 16 is unflattering to the nth degree, and makes him look decidely simian.
That’s odd, because anyone who can break into the Real Madrid first XI deserves to be mo-capped top to bottom. EA, fix this pronto.
Marco Reus
The talented German winger misses out on Euro 2016 due to injury, but at least he can console himself with the knowledge that he’ll be on the FIFA 17 cover come September. All the same, his in-game face from FIFA 16 needs a lot of work, and though it resembles the man himself, it’s a pretty poor like-for-like rendition. Expect a big improvement in 17.
Nicolas Otamendi
Otamendi has had to put up with the ignominy of sporting a generic face for the duration of FIFA 16 (with only a halfhearted nod to his surgically-precise hair and sculpted beard), despite making a £28.5 million move to Manchester City in August of last year, a full month before the game shipped. He’s been a solid if unspectacular edition to England’s richest team, and with a full season under his belt, I expect EA’s artists are already hard at work mimicking every strand of his ultra-groomed face fluff.
Matteo Darmian
Like Otamendi, Darmian’s face has been appropriated by someone else for FIFA 16, despite the fact that Darmian is fixture in the Italy side and an important cog in the Manchester United defence. In real life, Darmian hails from Legnano in Italy in real life, but in-game, he looks like a Mancunian lad with pasty white skin and dodgy head hair.
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Which players do you think need a makeover in FIFA 17? Is there a glaring omission from our list? Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Follow Edward Love on Twitter: @edlovewriter
