Great news for Naby Keita, Sead Kolasinac and Phil Foden… but not so much for Jesse Lingard or Wilfried Zaha
Players and fans alike are obsessed with FIFA player faces. To the point that over the summer, both Jesse Lingard and Wilfried Zaha protested to developer EA via Twitter about their outdated likenesses in FIFA 18 – to no avail, as each retain their digital sculpt from last year’s game.
While FIFA 19 might not bring good news for Lingard and Zaha, it does for many of their contemporaries. Every Premier League club has seen at least one new player likeness added, with another batch due in the now-traditional November update. Below are the best new faces from each English top flight club, along with a guide to which of their team-mates is new – and who will have to sweat for another couple of months in the hope of a pre-Christmas makeover.
Arsenal: Sead Kolasinac
The Bosnian no longer looks like a random bloke who’s wandered in off Holloway Road, while Ainsley Maitland-Niles is also freshly scanned. Among the Gunners’ summer signings Sokratis and Stephan Lichtsteiner have real faces, but Bernd Leno and Lucas Torreira do not.
Bournemouth: Jefferson Lerma
This year sees more than 200 player scans added to La Liga, and Bournemouth are direct beneficiaries. How so? Because both Diego Rico and Jefferson Lerma were digitised before leaving Leganes and Levante respectively, giving the Cherries new faces in a literal sense.
Brighton: Davy Propper
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An influx of Seagulls faces sees Jose Izquierdo, Davy Propper, Ezequiel Schelotto, Jurgen Locadia and Florin Andone included, with Alireza Jahanbakhsh among the summer’s World Cup 2018 updates. However, the four Bs – Balogun, Bernardo, Bissouma and Button – miss out.
Burnley: Chris Wood
Wood and Adam Legzdins (fifth-choice keeper, but why not?) get the official treatment for the first time, while summer additions Joe Hart and Ben Gibson already had likenesses in previous games. That leaves Matej Vydra as the only first-team regular lacking a scan.
Cardiff: Aron Gunnarsson
No new faces just yet for the Bluebirds, with Gunnarsson the most recently scanned ahead of FIFA 18’s World Cup spin-off DLC. His beard looks glorious. Junior Hoilett, Marko Grujic, Jazz Richards and Armand Traore are included from spells with previous clubs.
Chelsea: Ethan Ampadu
Exeter City alumnus Ampadu has his bouffant mane included for the first time, with Antonio Rudiger, Davide Zappacosta and Emerson also newly scanned. Summer additions Kepa Arrizabalaga and Mateo Kovacic have their proper mugs too. Jorginho is the lone notable absentee.
Crystal Palace: Aaron Wan-Bissaka
Opposition wingers may not like him, but Palace fans are already tipping Aaron Wan-Bissaka for England – and can celebrate his excellent early-season form with this equally top-drawer likeness. Alexander Sorloth and Jairo Riedewald are also added, but Max Meyer remains generic.
Everton: Cenk Tosun
The Turkish Glenn Murray – or is Glenn Murray the English Cenk Tosun? – gets a lifelike doppelganger, as does Richarlison, who had to do without one in his Watford days. Youngsters Beni Baningime and Morgan Feeney are also present and correct.
Fulham: Sergio Rico
Like Cardiff, newly promoted Fulham have a limited number of scans (six), with more expected in the November update. They are Andre Schurrle, Aleksander Mitrovic, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Calum Chambers, Alfie Mawson and Sergio Rico. Rico is the only brand-new one, scanned last season before departing Sevilla.
Huddersfield: Aaron Mooy
Terries diehards were left miffed last November when their squad’s faces were patched into FIFA 18 following promotion – minus their star playmaker of 2017/18. Thankfully Mooy’s been fixed, with likenesses for Terence Kongolo, Florent Hadergjonaj and Jon Gorenc Stankovic added too.
Leicester: Fousseni Diabate
Malian speedster Diabate gets one of the best new faces in the game, and is joined by senior pros Vicente Iborra and Adrien Silva. Sadly Ricardo Pereira and James Maddison both retain generic heads, and must be high on the priority list for the inevitable November update.
Liverpool: Naby Keita
RB Leipzig fans long lamented the lack of a proper face for their box-to-box lynchpin – but Reds supporters get him first time out. Roma supporters will be equally deflated at how quickly Alisson’s real head has been added. Joining that pair is youngster Rhian Brewster, but no Fabinho as yet.
Manchester City: Phil Foden
City are one of EA Sports’ partner clubs, so unsurprisingly get a host of new faces. England starlet Phil Foden’s fantastic likeness is welcome, alongside new ones for Arijanet Muric, Cameron Humphreys-Grant, Brahim Diaz, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Danilo and Benjamin Mendy. Just greedy, really.
Manchester United: Tahith Chong
Swedish defender Victor Lindelof has a real face for the first time, but he’s overshadowed – literally – by bright new hope Chong and his triumphant hair. Fellow youth-teamers Angel Gomes and Ethan Hamilton are now accurate too. Fred is missing, however.
Newcastle: Martin Dubravka
No new youth faces for the Geordies, but first-teamers Dubravka and Fabian Schar do get scans for the first time. Summer signings Salomon Rondon and Federico Fernandez are already in from their respective spells with West Brom and Swansea.
Southampton: Yan Valery
There’s a fresh-faced trio of defenders down at St Mary’s, with French full-back Valery having been joined in front of EA’s high-tech cameras by Jan Bednarek and Wesley Hoedt. New keeper Angus Gunn already had a likeness included from his Manchester City days.
Tottenham: Davinson Sanchez
Loads of new Spurs faces this year, with Sanchez and Serge Aurier joined by youngsters Juan Foyth, Tashan Oakley-Boothe, and Anthony Georgiou. Spurs’ new stadium is also in – somewhat miraculously, given that it remains unfinished in real life.
Watford: Abdoulaye Doucoure
Numerous Hornets first-teamers lacked scans last season, wrecking career mode for the Vicarage Road perfectionist. That’s now fixed to an extent, with Doucoure, Will Hughes, Kiko Femenia and Marvin Zeegelaar all given authentic likenesses.
West Ham: Dapo Afolayan
On the back of his breakthrough season, Declan Rice scores an official likenesses, although young striker Afolayan’s is even better. They’re joined by a plethora of fellow under-21s in keeper Nathan Trott, defender Josh Pask, plus midfielders Dan Kemp and Nathan Holland.
Wolves: Jonny
Those aforementioned La Liga scans bring good news to Molineux: Jonny was captured before leaving Celta. Otherwise only four Wolves players (Rui Patricio, Raul Jimenez, John Ruddy, and Ryan Bennett) have lifelike faces. As with Cardiff and Fulham, expect more in November.
