FIFA 23: Three things we learned from the recently released FIFA World Cup DLC

As any fans of football simulation games will tell you, it couldn’t be a more exciting time to follow the planet’s biggest sport. That’s because the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar is right around the corner. The curtain raiser takes place on November 20th as the hosts face off against Ecuador in Al Khor’s 60,000-capacity Al Bayt Stadium, and you better believe that the eyes of the world will be watching.

EA Sports released their FIFA 23 World Cup DLC on November 10th and it has already proven to be a huge hit. Not only is there bucket loads of new content for Ultimate Team – such as path to glory and World Cup icon cards – the Canadian games provided a brand new soundtrack which is akin to a FIFA tunes greatest hits album.

The DLC has plenty of new game modes such as a fully playable FIFA World Cup and an online version of the competition, where you can play with any of the qualified nations and lead them to virtual glory. Here are the three main things we learned when playing through the tournament.

1 – Sadio Mane scores goals!

The highlight of the newly released DLC is a fully playable FIFA World Cup game mode. We tried it out with eight different nations, and by the end of the tournament, it was clear that the reigning African champions had a superstar in their squad. Sadio Mane helped Senegal to a maiden AFCON title earlier in the year and when we played through the showdown in Qatar, he finished the tournament as the top scorer.

Manager Aliou Cisse has included Mane in his squad despite the Bayern Munich man carrying an injury. We were so impressed by the 30-year-old exploits in the video game that we decided to include him winning the Golden Boot award as our accumulator bet for the tournament. Should he not feature, we need not worry. The selection will be voided and then using tools such as Unibet’s bet calculator can work out our new potential winnings.

2 – Lionel Messi could bow out on top

While Sadio Mane was scoring goals for fun in Group A in our playthrough, Argentina were powering their way to glory. And what a perfect sendoff that would be if the same thing happens in real life. The 2022 FIFA World Cup will mark the fifth and final time we see Messi on football’s greatest stage, and he and his compatriots enter the tournament as second favourites. The favourites? Well, they just happen to be the Albiceleste’s biggest rivals Brazil.

But Messi and co, saw off their archrivals in last year’s Copa America final in Rio De Janeiro of all places when they defeated them 1-0, giving the PSG maestro his first trophy on the international stage. In our World Cup playthrough, Argentina topped their group, before defeating reigning champions France, the Netherlands, Spain, and once again their archrivals Brazil in the final to lift the trophy. The Argentinians also won EA Sports’ official playthrough, which has been correct in their last three editions of the World Cup. Surely that’s a good omen?

3 – EA Sports’ FIFA franchise will be missed

The FIFA video game franchise, and specifically EA Sports, have come in for huge amounts of criticism from fans in recent years. Some of that is justified. But FIFA 23 will be the last installment in the franchise as the Canadian producer and world football’s governing body couldn’t come to terms on a new rights deal. That left us feeling a little nostalgic and it’s great to see that EA Sports have really pulled out all the stops to end the franchise with a bang.

The franchise will turn 29 next month and, although it has been a roller coaster ride, all that is left to say is goodbye, and thanks for the memories.