During a global event in Amsterdam, the EA Sports FC 24 cover star was revealed as Manchester City striker, Erling Haaland, who put in a surprise appearance alongside fellow superstars from the World’s Game including Didier Drogba, Luis Figo, Laura Georges, Alex Scott and more.

Announcements ranged from detailing three new cutting-edge technologies using real match data to deliver realistic in-game play and bringing men and women’s footballers together onto the same pitch in a world first for Ultimate Team.

Electronic Arts debuted the below EA Sports FC 24 gameplay trailer showcasing the ground-breaking realism delivered by HyperMotion V, which uses volumetric data from over 180 professional matches in the men’s and women’s game to deliver revolutionary true-to-football movement and animations.

EA Sports FC announces that it’s bringing the Ballon d’Or™ to EA Sports FC 24. Players will be able to receive the famous trophy in EA Sports FC 24 Player Career.

Every player dreams of winning the Ballon d’Or. Since 1956, every year France Football has awarded the Ballon d'Or to the best male and female football player of the season.

Universally regarded as football’s most prestigious and valuable individual award, the iconic trophy was on display in Amsterdam during EA SPORTS FC Livestream Event on July 13 with former recipients Luis Figo and Ronaldinho in attendance.

New features in both Player and Manager Career in EA Sports FC 24 will help players control their footballing destiny even further. Achieving an incredible individual season in Player Career will activate the newly designed Ballon d’Or animation.

David Jackson, VP of Brand, EA Sports FC, said: “We’re delighted to bring the prestigious Ballon d’Or into EA Sports FC. Including these iconic trophies in-game furthers our efforts to provide players with the most authentic and inspiring football experiences possible.”

Kevin Benharrats, CEO of Amaury Media, comments: “It has been a pleasure to collaborate with EA marketing teams. We are proud of this new partnership for the Ballon d’Or, we hope it will contribute to EA Sports FC success.”

Career Mode Experiences

Shape your club as a manager, or choose exactly how you play on the pitch as a player through the new EA Sports FC 24 Career Experience.

From defining the philosophy of your club as a manager, to choosing exactly how you play on the pitch as a player, with EA SPORTS FC™ 24 we’re giving you more control over creating your own football stories through our Career Experiences.

This year we’re splitting the Manager Career and Player Career into separate experiences. There are lots of new and exciting elements to discover within each mode, so make sure you check them both out below.

In Manager Career we're introducing a Total Management System that brings together two new elements - Tactical Visions and Coaches. Alongside that, we’ve focussed on Match Preparation, all these combine with the goal of enabling you to manage your club exactly how you want to. We’re also keen to celebrate your success with a range of new dynamic moments that include Open Top Bus Parades and Awards Events. So let's jump right in and get into all the details.

Total Management System

Tactical Vision

Managers can be involved in all major club decisions, whether they implement changes themselves or make sure they’ve got the right staff around them to delegate to. The appointment of a new manager has the potential to completely transform a club and its football philosophy

We strive to allow you to put your stamp on the game, to fuel the identity of your clubs as you take charge of them and ultimately feel in control of the way your team behaves on and off the pitch. Tactical Vision enables you to have easier control over selecting, implementing, and then perfecting the way your team approaches their football. To begin with, you can choose from 7 different tactical real-world and authentic philosophies—from Park the Bus to Gegenpressing— in terms of how you want your team to play. The available Tactical Visions are:

• Standard: A balanced approach to the game, focused on maintaining a shape which will help you stay strong defensively while still offering a threat going forward
• Wing Play: Makes use of the full width of the pitch when in possession, getting the ball out to attacking players close to the touchlines quickly and using overlapping full-backs to add to the threat from those areas
• Tiki-Taka: A possession-based style of play. Comfortable on the ball all over the pitch, your players use short passing and rotations while waiting for opportunities to play in attackers who've run into channels or gaps between opposition defenders.
• Counter-Attack: Low-risk and a low block are the key to this style of play. Players defend the penalty area and then, once possession is regained, get the ball forward quickly with attackers ready to run into space behind the opponents' defensive line.
• Gegenpressing: This strategy is based around a high press. Your team tries to win back the ball in the opponent's third wherever possible, using turnovers to create goal-scoring opportunities before the opposition can settle back into shape.
• Kick & Rush: A style of play built around strength and athleticism enables your players to often bypass the midfield, getting the ball forward quickly to your powerful strikers who can exploit space behind defenders and battle for second balls and knockdowns.
• Park the Bus: Your team bases its game around solid, uncompromising defending. You're always disciplined and well-organised out of possession, usually employing a very low block, throttling opponents' attacks before winning the ball and trying to get forward yourselves.

Tactical Visions start from Tactics and Player Instruction presets. Our goal was to enable player expression within each Tactical Vision, so most of the settings are quite flexible. There are, however, defining settings for each Tactical Vision that can’t be modified. For example, you can’t play Counter-Attacking football without setting your Chance Creation to Forward Runs, just like you can’t engage with Wing Play without setting your wingers to be extra wide on the pitch. If you don’t want to use any of the 7 Tactical Visions we’ve set up, you can always create a Custom set up, which is where players who change the defining setting of an existing Tactical Vision will go as well.  

Any Tactical Vision can be applied to any formation we have in the game. It’s down to you as the Manager to determine what combination works best for the strengths and weaknesses of your team. Also, Tactical Vision works independently of Game Plans, so you can choose to have one vision to rule them all or assign an individual Tactical Vision to each plan (e.g. Ultra-Defensive to Park The Bus, Defensive to Counter-Attack, Balanced to Tiki-Taka.)

Tactical Vision Scouting

We’ve also refreshed the Scouting system so you can recruit players that are a natural fit for the tactical system you’re trying to implement. So apart from the existing filters (position, age, remaining contract), we’ve added some new ones:

• Tactical Fit: Each Tactical Vision is associated with a set of key Attributes for each position on the field. With Tactical Fit, your scouts will report back on players that stand out in those areas of their game.

For example, when looking for a Central Midfielder (CM) that is compatible with Counter-Attack, your scouts will prioritise Agility, Stamina, Dribbling and Acceleration among other Attributes, while a Tiki-Taka CM will need good levels of Ball Control, Short Passing, Positioning, to be a part of the report.

• Overall Condition: This is a filter that determines the quality of the player you are looking for, ranging from Backup to World Class.
• PlayStyles: Need a player that has a specific PlayStyle in their arsenal? This is where you ask for it.

Coaches

Before we dive into how coaches operate, let’s clarify how they work across departments. Each team is made up of the following departments: Attack, Midfield, Defence, and Goalkeeping. Depending on their pitch positions, all players are linked to their relevant department, including senior and youth players. For example, the Defensive Department will consist of players playing the Left Wing Back (LWB), Right Wing Back (RWB), Left Back (LB), Right Back (RB), and Centre Back (CB) positions, in the Squad Hub and Youth Academy. Players who are loaned out do not belong to a department. 

Each coach will need to be assigned to a department, so the players in that department can benefit from the coach’s Knowledge and Skills.

Coaches have two main dimensions:

• Tactical Knowledge
• Player Development 

Tactical Knowledge

Each coach is described by their Knowledge of the aforementioned Tactical Visions. There are 3 levels of Knowledge: 

• Novice
• Accomplished
• Expert

As a baseline, each coach is at Novice level on all 7 Tactical Visions. On top of that, some more experienced Coaches will be at Accomplished or Expert level on only one Tactical Vision. 

Over time, coaches earn XP on a Tactical Vision through matches played, and more so through match wins. The XP gained on a Tactical Vision contributes towards reaching the next Knowledge level. All coaches at a club are eligible to earn Tactical Vision specific XP from matches, except the ones that have already reached Expert level on that Tactical Vision.

With coaching staff in place, when a Tactical Vision is selected, the game automatically picks the coach with the best Knowledge level in each Department and assigns them as the Head of Department.

The Knowledge the Head Coach has can increase Attributes of players in their Department. The higher the Knowledge level is, the more Attributes can be. Novice level Coaches typically increase 3 Attributes at most, while Expert level coaches can increase up to 9 Attributes.

The Attributes that are increased for each player are determined by the combination of the Tactical Vision that the coach knows, and the position the player has on the pitch. So for instance, a Wing Play Coach can increase, among others:

• Crossing, Sprint Speed, Acceleration, Dribbling for Wingers
• Strength, Heading, Shot Power, Jumping and Finishing for Strikers

By comparison, a Counter Attack Coach can increase:

• Agility, Stamina, Finishing, Dribbling and Acceleration for Wingers
• Dribbling, Ball Control, Acceleration, Finishing and Sprint Speed for Strikers

Tactical Vision Knowledge levels apply to players irrespective of department, so you’ll get the same amount of increased Attributes for a coach whether you assign to Attack, Midfield or Defence. Goalkeepers have less Attributes to begin with so they have less Attributes increased as a side-effect of that.

Attribute increases only apply on the pitch during matches, and ultimately depend on the position the player is assigned to. So a Central Midfield (CM) player that is sent on the pitch as a Wide Midfielder (LM/RM) will get Attribute increases for Attributes relevant to the wide position.

The size of the increase is determined by player sharpness, so regardless of the Coach Knowledge level, it is up to each manager to get players at the right levels of sharpness to get a strong increase , while also having enough Energy to be eligible to play the match. To find out more about this, visit the Training Plans section.

When the Tactical Vision is set to, or changed to Custom by editing the defining settings, the following applies:

• The game still selects the best available Knowledge in each Department, this time irrespective of the 7 Tactical Vision Presets (since none of them are active).
• The Knowledge is penalised: Expert becomes Accomplished, Accomplished becomes Novice. Novice stays the same.
• The player can manually select which coach is to be the Head of each Department.

Coaches do not gain XP during matches when a Custom Tactical Vision is selected.

Player Development 

Coaches are also defined by the set of skills they have for developing players over time. Their quality is described by sets of stars ranging from 1-5 and are Department specific. When a coach is assigned to a Department, the relevant skills they bring to the table add up to the similar skills of the other coaches in that Department. A Department Total is calculated by adding all the Department specific stars of the coaches assigned there. We’ll call this Achieved Quality in this article. 

The players that make up a Department determine what is needed from the coaching staff that manages it. Based on the number of players, their OVR and potential, the Ideal Quality of each Department is calculated and displayed. This is the threshold that needs to be reached in terms of Achieved Quality, in order to access the maximum boost on Player Development Plans. Players whose Development Plans are boosted get more XP, ultimately leading to completing their growth and conversion plans in less time. That’s why managers can always see the effect of the coaches per department on the Development Plan finish date, compared to when no coaches are allocated to that department.

The existing factors that determine the XP growth of players (such as match-time actions and form), work similarly to how they worked in the past, while the coach boost is applied on top. As a reference, no coaches in the department take your development speed to less than it was in the past, while meeting the Ideal Quality standards makes plans finish faster than before.

Something to keep in mind is the fact that Ideal Quality is dynamic, so it will evolve with the changes that apply to your squad, whether it’s from Transfer Activity or Player Development. Trimming down your squad to make sure fewer, more important players get all the attention of your coaches is worth considering to get the best results.

Coach Management

You can decide how to assign hired coaches to the club’s departments, depending on the needs of each club. However, every club has a limited number of open positions to hire coaches, which mainly depends on the stature (worth) of the club. Year on year, extra coach slots can be unlocked by the board, if you have a good manager rating at the end of the previous season.

The list of coaches that is available on the market refreshes periodically. So if you don’t find the ideal candidates to fill all available slots, you can return after some time and check again. We’ve also created a coach wishlist that enables managers to list the sought after Tactical Vision, Knowledge and specific Coach skills, and even get a notification when a suitable candidate becomes available.

Coaches can be moved freely between departments with no implications, to balance the dynamic Ideal Quality of each Department. They can also be released by the club to make room for a better available coach, but this will generate a severance package to be paid and the released coach will not appear on the market again.

Similar to putting together the perfect squad, gathering the ideal coaching staff is a process that takes skill, patience and time. It creates a new dimension of improving your club and it enables you to experiment to find an ideal mix. For example, it can be useful to focus on just one Tactical Vision and recruit the relevant staff that enable you to execute it perfectly and use the rest of the slots to fuel improved player development. Ultimately, how you want to run your club is up to you, and we look forward to seeing all of the possible variations over time.  

Training Plans  

While having a solid Tactical plan is a must-have for success, it’s only a part of the process of getting ready for your next game. As a manager, you constantly need to evaluate which players are best prepared to execute your requirements.

Team preparation is a season-long quest of finding the right balance between building up the players’ match Sharpness and helping them regain their Fitness as soon as possible. It’s a challenge that the entire staff of the club works towards while factoring in situations such as suspensions, injuries, and calendar changes.

We’ve revamped the team training system to better reflect the role modern managers have in getting the team firing at all cylinders, with the help of their staff. Training Plans allow you to establish the right balance between building performance and regaining energy for each player in the squad. There are five Training Plans to choose from, ranging from focused on Performance to focused on Energy. Selecting one of them for a player will tell the club staff what they should be focusing on, for that player. You’ll find that the priorities shift as the season progresses, depending on the minutes played, the natural fitness of each player and the weight of your calendar for your entire squad.

For instance, when the season starts and the players are back from their holidays, they are seriously lacking match practice, so Sharpness is low. As the season progresses, you’ll find you need to pay more attention to Fitness levels if you need to have your best squad ready for that all important match against your arch-rival in 2 weeks. A player that is back from a serious injury, or just transferred from a different league might benefit from a different training plan than the rest of your team.

Training Plans can be assigned individually or to groups of players: Starting XI, Subs, Reserves. We’ve also implemented a “copy last” function to allow you to set your last manually selected Training Plan to other players. Keep an eye on your team’s levels and remember you need players sharp to get their Attributes increased by your Coaches’ Knowledge, but you also need them fit to be able to sprint during matches and avoid injuries. It’s up to you to find the right balance for your club's changing situations.

EA Sports FC 24 Takes In-Game Realism to the Next Level

EA Sports has changed the way people play and enjoy football, and new, cutting-edge technologies will see EA Sports FC 24 deliver unparalleled realism in every match.

EA Sports FC 24 will include:

• HyperMotionV* is our biggest leap forward in realism to-date, translating the rhythm and fluidity of real-world football into The World’s Game using volumetric data from more than 180 professional men’s and women’s football matches that allows us to reflect real-world movement in-game more than ever before.
• PlayStyles optimised by Opta dimensionalises athletes, going beyond overall ratings to bring to life the on-pitch abilities that make players special. Each PlayStyle gives players unique capabilities you’ll see and feel that make their way of playing more authentic.
• An enhanced Frostbite Engine delivers The World’s Game in lifelike detail, bringing a new level of immersion through redesigned player models, smoother animations and visibly unique characteristics that make each player special. Kits now move like real-world materials, reacting to a player’s stride, shifting as they change direction, and flowing along with them as they play.

A World-First as Men’s and Women’s Football Comes Together on the Same Pitch

As part of a broader commitment to women’s football, EA Sports FC 24 will bring men and women’s football together to play on the same pitch for the first time. Players will be able to experience brand-new Ultimate Team features, including welcoming women footballers to the pitch for the first time in Ultimate Team for players to craft their dream XI.

Introducing the EA Sports FC 24 Cover Star

At the event, Manchester City and Norway striker, Erling Haaland, was unveiled as the EA Sports FC 24 cover star. After Haaland’s historic treble-winning season with Manchester City, including the record number of goals scored in a Premier League season, he stood out as the clear choice to herald a new era in EA Sports’s long history. EA Sports cover stars have always defined the peak of football talent – in real life and in-game – and Haaland’s phenomenal attributes across finishing, positioning and physicality are no exception.

An Authentic Football Experience

With authenticity and innovation at its core, EA Sports FC 24 showcases the best players from the biggest clubs, leagues, and competitions around the globe – in both the men’s and women’s game.

Having already confirmed that some of the world’s best competitions would feature in EA Sports FC – including LALIGA EA Sports, Bundesliga, Serie A and CONMEBOL Libertadores – EA Sports announced an exclusive renewal with UEFA, meaning EA Sports FC 24 is the only place you can play the iconic UEFA Champions League, UEFA Women's Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League and UEFA Super Cup.

Additionally, EA Sports announced an exciting long-term renewal with the Premier League, historically the most popular league in game.

Two additional women’s football leagues – the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga and Liga F – are confirmed to feature in EA Sports FC 24, joining the Barclays Women’s Super League, the D1 Arkema, the National Women's Soccer League and the UEFA Women's Champions League.

EA Sports FC 24 Founders Status

EA Sports announced Founders Status to celebrate the fans who join EA Sports FC at the start of a new era for The World’s Game. Fans who play EA Sports FC 24 by 1 November 2023 will become an FC Founder** and unlock benefits including an exclusive Founder badge and kit to represent their status for years to come. In addition, FC Founders will get access to a bunch of great Founders-only benefits throughout EA Sports FC 24 and beyond. Get ready to unlock the best EA Sports FC has to offer with this one-time chance to be there at the beginning and become an FC Founder.

EA Play*** members will receive early access to the game with a 10-hour trial beginning on September 22. EA Play Pro members will enjoy unlimited access to the EA Play Pro Edition** of the game – including Ultimate edition content – starting September 22. Lastly, all EA Play members will unlock additional bonuses for EA Sports FC 24, with monthly Draft Tokens in Ultimate Team, seasonal Clubs Rewards, and seasonal VOLTA FOOTBALL APPAREL & COINS.

EA Sports FC 24 will be available to play on September 29, 2023, with early access through the Ultimate Edition available as of September 22, 2023. Fans that pre-order the Ultimate Edition by August 22nd will receive a number of player benefits, including an untradeable UEFA Champions League Ultimate Team Hero item in November.

EA Sports FC 24 is coming to Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC on September 29, 2023.