After the European football season begins and the transfer window closes, the next event in the footballing calendar is the annual release of EA Sports' premier football game, EA FC 25.
Colloquially, many will still refer to the game as FIFA despite the series's rebrand in 2022. For good reason, too, because despite the many tweaks and changes the game has undergone in recent years, it's still plagued by the familiar issues fans have complained about for years.
Yet, despite some underlying issues that, at this point, are so ingrained I would miss them if they were fixed, this is a year with a lot of positives for the series.
Most importantly for many fans, Career Mode has received some attention for the first time in years, helping to elevate the game mode and making it feel less like the forgotten middle child it's sadly become.
Now, academies are a worthwhile endeavour when crafting your own management career, enabling a reliance on youth that has been nothing short of a slog in the past.