FIFA 23 transforms footballers into Marvel superheroes for Ultimate Team

Here's an odd crossover: FIFA and Marvel.

EA has announced a collaboration with Marvel that reimagines some of the most famous footballers of yesteryear as superheroes.

Ex-footballers such as USA stalwart Landon Donovan, legendary Chelsea defender Ricardo Carvalho and all-conquering Man City midfielder Yaya Touré have unique illustrated designs that replace real-world player photos in FIFA 23's Ultimate Team mode.

Eurogamer Newscast: Are Sony and Microsoft's claims over Call of Duty just business as usual?

EA has confirmed five players as superheroes so far. Donovan is The Brave - a clear nod to Captain America.

Carvalho is The Anticipator.

Former Juventus midfielder Claudio Marchisio is Il Principino (The Little Prince - Marchisio's nickname in the dressing room).

Touré is the Greek god-like The Citadel.

And South Korean star Park Ji-Sung is Tigerheart.

This promotion applies to 21 of the FIFA World Cup FUT Heroes items, which means, yes, they will be sold in FIFA 23 Ultimate Team's loot boxes.

Each World Cup FUT Hero gets the special illustrated FUT item at the launch of FIFA 23's World Cup game mode, which is without a release date but will surely be timed to come out alongside the actual World Cup in November. The base versions of FUT Heroes are available at the launch of FIFA 23 in September.

There's even going to be an online Marvel Heroes comic book released at a later date, EA said.

Who will get the superhero treatment next? With any luck Marvel will reimagine ex-England striker Peter Crouch as The Beanpole.