After the Ted Lasso Twitter account teased the potential of the coach's involvement in a video game, EA Sports now confirms that Ted Lasso and his team, AFC Richmond, will be coming to FIFA 23.
It has been announced that Ted Lasso and key members of the AFC Richmond roster and staff will be playable characters in a variety of FIFA 23 game modes. After showing off a man dressed as Ted Lasso in front of face capture cameras and taking a dig at Mario, EA Sports released a trailer showing off Ted Lasso and some of the players from AFC Richmond in-game. The trailer even had cameos from real soccer coaches like D.C. United's Wayne Rooney, and Roy Kent, a member of AFC Richmond in the show.
EA Sports announced that Ted Lasso and AFC Richmond will be playable in FIFA 23's Career Mode, Kick-Off, Online Friendlies, and Online Seasons. The AFC Richmond home stadium, Nelson Road, will also be in the game. The AFC Richmond uniforms, coaches, and other customization options will be made available in FIFA Ultimate Team through challenges and objectives if players want to stylize their ultimate team that way.
The effort to render Jason Sudeikis' Ted Lasso persona comes off strikingly accurate even though there aren't shots of Sudeikis himself in the trailer before the cut to gameplay renders. Nevertheless, the same care to put into his likeness as with the majority of players and coaches in FIFA 23 has been given to Ted Lasso. With some of the improvements to Career mode especially, players may have the opportunity to interact with Ted Lasso and other members of the AFC Richmond team if they so choose and role-play their own player as part of the plucky club. With the new Authentic Managers feature Ted Lasso could also be customized and uprooted from AFC Richmond and placed on any team a player wants.
This move to have a gimmick character in FIFA 23 is a curious, yet fun choice. The popularity of the show with both fans of soccer/football and fans of just the show that won't sit through a real match makes this a worthwhile crossover. With EA ending its relationship with the world football governing body FIFA, but still retaining the rights to clubs and players, maybe fans will get to see more fun crossovers like this from EA's flagship sports brand.
FIFA 23 is set to release on September 30 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
