The new La Masia super talent Lamine Yamal will shockingly not feature in the new EA FC 24 release which has left Barcelona fans baffled.
The right winger has been breaking records recently as he became the youngest player to be included in Spain’s senior squad ever for their international matches, then became Spain’s youngest goal scorer, and also is now the second youngest player to feature in Champions League history when he played against Royal Antwerp on Tuesday.
Blaugrana fans love the youngster due to his mature gameplay at the young age of 16 as he is integrated into the first-team squad more this season.
But his age has also been the reason that has seen his exclusion from the new FIFA game. EA has a lot of policies regarding the players that they include in the game, and a prominent policy is an age restriction.
EA does not include players younger than 17 years of age. It is also the reason why Barcelona’s former number 10 Ansu Fati was unable to find himself in the FIFA 20 game as he did not meet the age criteria.
Lamine now faces the same fate as his teammate as he just turned 16 last month and will now have to wait for another 300 days until he turns 17, which would most certainly let him feature in the next version of the football game.
But there has been some inconsistency by EA in applying these rules since Barcelona’s another young talent Pablo Gavi, featured in FIFA 22 even though he was 16.
Borussia Dortmund’s brilliant striker Youssoufa Moukoko was added to their squad when he did not meet the age criteria as well.
People who have been fans of the game for a few years did not stop there and tried to unearth how long has EA actually been following its unusual age restriction rule.
Martin Odegaard at 15, in FIFA 15
It then came to light that Arsenal’s starboy Bukayo Saka was also added to the game when he was 16, and Martin Odegaard was included in FIFA 15 when he was just 15, which led to a lot of questions being raised by fans about EA’s unfair policies which have glaring irregularities in its implementation.
It is further clarified that he will feature in the career mode of the game, but won’t be available for Ultimate Teams.
There is hope from supporters that EA will realize their fault here and add Lamine Yamal as part of their monthly update or during the January transfer window and the insurmountable hype around the youngster will only make it irresistible for EA to not include him in the game.
Regardless, fans all over social media could not contain their excitement about their highly-rated youngster as they made up their own rating card for Lamine predicting that he should get a minimum 78-rated right winger card when he does get added to the game.
