EA Sports’ FIFA is one of the best football simulations of all time. The game's popularity, however, is not confined to religious football fans and gamers. For various reasons, the franchise is very popular among professional football players as well. They usually have a competitive personality and they often find themselves playing FIFA with their “mates” after long hours of training.
However, sometimes they take the game a little too seriously and often manage to make the headlines. Here are some of the hilarious stories involving footballers and FIFA:
5. Leyton Orient
The power video games have over people was brought into the spotlight when Leyton Orient banned their players from enjoying FIFA. The League One team were on the top of the table and had won the first eight matches of the season. Given that the club had not won a single match since the release of the game, the club staff believed that the game was responsible for their poor performance and banned their players from playing the game.
However, once the ban came into place, Orient managed to beat Coventry City by winning 4-2 on penalties. After they picked up, the management decided to lift the ban and said that players could only play FIFA in their own free time away from the training ground. They’re also banned from playing FIFA games during matchdays.
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4. Adebayo Akinfenwa
Wycombe Wanderers’ Adebayo Akinfenwa has developed something similar to a cult following. He became quite popular because he is considered to be the strongest player in the FIFA franchise. The bulky forward has good ratings which have always encouraged players to make the most out of The Beast.
However, Akinfenwa has something else to say about his ratings. His power comes at the cost of speed and he slyly admitted that he doesn't like to play as himself because he is quite slow and frustrating.
While everyone likes to have a fast striker in their ranks, Akinfenwa must have known that playing with himself will always amount to seeing him in real life, full of hustle but little in the way of speed. It suggests that Akinfenwa doesn't clearly know his own strengths and weaknesses.
3. Andrea Pirlo
Andrea Pirlo is a man of skill and fancy footwork. However, what many may not know is that the midfielder is obsessed with the FIFA franchise. The Italian loves the game so much that he describes the game as the second greatest invention of all time.
In his autobiography, Pirlo mentions the FIFA duels he used to have with Alessandro Nesta, his former Milan teammate. “Pirlo v Nesta was a classic duel back in our Milanello days. We'd get in early, have breakfast at 9 am and then shut ourselves in our room and hit the PlayStation until 11. Training would follow, then we'd be back on the computer games until four in the afternoon. Truly a life of sacrifice,” it reads.
Pirlo's storied career has reached its twilight now, but the number of big games he has been part of suggests that FIFA has graced the grandest of football occasions with the Italian artist.
2. Wojciech Szczesny
Wojciech Szczesny’s story involving FIFA had managed to grab quite a few headlines at the time. During a tour of his house, Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny picked up his controller and started playing FIFA 15. He revealed to a Polish TV crew that in an attempt make funds to buy Zlatan Ibrahimovic, he had to sell himself to Manchester United for £18.5 million.
Szczesny has seen himself out of favour at Arsenal and moved to AS Roma in 2015 where he has played a starring role so far as the Giallorossi challenge regularly for the Serie A title.
1. Paul Pogba
During the 2014 World Cup, a video report by the French Football Federation showed Paul Pogba enjoying the manager mode in FIFA. Pogba, who was then playing for Juventus, decided to manage Chelsea. The video also shows that the Frenchman chose to transfer himself to Chelsea. While it is not unusual for a player to play with other teams, Pogba’s transfer in the game had sparked various rumours for the player signing for Chelsea in real life.
Pogba eventually ended up joining Manchester United for a world record fee last summer, putting an end to speculations linking him to a multitude of big European clubs, Chelsea included.
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