The late Diego Maradona will soon be added to EA Sports FC 25, nearly three years after he was removed from FIFA 22.
Back in 2022, EA suddenly and unexpectedly removed Argentinian player and manager Diego Maradona from that year’s football game, FIFA 22.
At the time, all EA said was this was due to a ‘third-party legal dispute,’ though it was believed EA had failed to properly secure the rights to the late Maradona’s likeness.
EA expressed hope that it would be able to reintroduce Maradona back to the game. It’s been nearly three years since then and after three sequels and a rebranding to EA Sports FC, Maradona is officially set to make a comeback.
When is Diego Maradona being added to EA Sports FC 25?
According to a post shared to the EA Sports FC 25 X account, Diego Maradona will be added to the game this week on February 14.
EA hasn’t provided any further specifics though, only posting an image of Maradona alongside the EA Sports FC 25 logo and a date to announce his return.
At the very least, Maradona should be made available in EA Sports FC 25’s Ultimate Team Mode, allowing players to recruit him for their squad. In FIFA 22, he boasted extremely high stats so he’ll no doubt be heavily sought after upon his return.
As a reminder, EA thought it did have permission to use Maradona’s likeness from his former manager, but it turned out said manager never held the rights.
To make things extra confusing, there was a separate legal battle going on between two other parties – Maradona’s lawyer and Maradona’s heirs – over who actually held the likeness rights following Maradona’s death in 2020.
Per a report by The Associated Press, a company owned by Maradona’s lawyer named Sattvica tried to claim ownership of the Maradona trademark, but an attempt at a transferal was cancelled by Maradona’s heirs and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), which said the company hadn’t provided sufficient documentation.
Sattvica tried to get around this by appealing to the General Court of the European Union but, in November 2023, said court rejected the appeal and sided with the EUIPO, saying, ‘The documents submitted in support of the request for registration of the transfer do not justify an assignment of the trademark to that company.’
Presumably, this means EA has been negotiating with Maradona’s heirs to resecure the likeness rights though the company is unlikely to go into the nitty gritty of the matter.
While this is some good news for EA and fans, Maradona’s return is unlikely to be an instant fix for EA’s current financial woes. The company recently admitted that EA Sports FC 25 hasn’t been performing as well as hoped though EA CEO Andrew Wilson is confident things will pick up later in the year.
Email [email protected], leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter.
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.
MORE: UK physical game sales plummet in 2024 as EA Sports FC 25 tops charts
MORE: Why Sociable Soccer is more enjoyable than EA Sports FC – Reader’s Feature
MORE: EA thinks Dragon Age flopped because it wasn’t a live service game
