I think it is fair to say that EA has neglected career mode in recent years. Whilst new modes such as VOLTA Football and improvements to ultimate team were made, aside from the introduction of press conferences in FIFA 20, career has essentially stayed the same for a number of years. With FIFA 21 career there are many new features we would like to be added. Here are our top five:
1) The Return of Sponsors
So the first feature that we would like in the next iteration of FIFA is something that was in the game before over 10 years ago! In FIFA 09 upon starting your career mode you could choose a sponsor that would give you a cash influx.
These sponsorship deals were not real companies but did add an extra layer to the career mode experience in being able to take control of large parts of the club. If possible, it would be great if you could add these sponsorships to the kits and it would be even better if these were sponsorship deals were real companies however many legal and ethical considerations would come into play here so I wouldn’t bet much on it.
2) Staff Management
I am taking much inspiration from the Football Manager series with my next pick. Currently, we can only choose scouts for our FIFA career mode. The higher the rating a scout, the more expensive they will be however the better players you will get in the long run.
This could be fleshed out further with other backroom staff having a ‘star’ rating. For example, replace your goalkeeping coach who is two stars with one who is 4. This new coach will get more out of the goalkeepers at the club, increasing their rating and therefore improving the club.
3) New Season, New Kit
In real life, football clubs will have a new kit every season. With FIFA, this does not happen. You would be in your fifth season with a team and still have the same jersey as the first season where you were three divisions lower.
This new feature would allow you to change the jersey every season.
I would love for EA to add a kit editor if possible. This can be as barebones as possible to start with. To avoid ethical and legal considerations the sponsors can stay the same and in the same place on the shirt. It can be as basic as changing the colour of the away shirt for much-needed change or add a stripe to a bland home jersey.
This feature would be great for the team I support Nottingham Forest. Just adding the pinstripes from the 17/18 home shirt to this seasons would make it a whole lot better.
4) Kit Supplier/Brand
Inclined with the kit editor is the kit supplier/brand. This is a very simple feature that EA could add to the game if they are able to do so as legal issues may prevent this.
Players could choose between some of the main kit suppliers in the sport such as Adidas, Nike, Puma and Macron. This is a very small feature but would add much welcome customisation to the game.
Adidas, Nike or even Macron?
5) New Stadium
When starting a new career mode, you may decide to do a ‘road to glory’ scenario – start with a team in the lower divisions and try to take them to the very top with European glory. As this team starts very low, the chances are you have a small stadium. You might end up playing Barcelona in the semi-final of the Champions League with what looks like a 10,000 seater stadium.
It would be a great idea to be able to ask/request to the board for a new stadium. This could come out of your transfer budget so it would affect the dealings you could make in the transfer window but will give an extra option to you as the manager when deciding how to spend your money. Rather have that £70 million striker or that new 40,000 seater stadium? The decision is yours.
EA has continued to add new stadiums to FIFA every year.
These are just some of the ideas we have to improve the FIFA career experience. We hope that EA can add some of these in future titles.
What do you make of our picks? and what would you like adding? Let us know in the comments below!
