EA Sports FC 25 New Icons & Icon List
More than 100 legends of the game are likely to grace the pitch in EA Sports FC 25, including Gianluigi Buffon, Gareth Bale and Lillian Thuram.
EA Sports FC 25 features more Icons than ever, letting you fill your squads with legendary players from just about every era of football. Whether they were your Dad's idol, your Grandma's favourite player, or even yours from when you were younger, the sheer variety of Icons now in the game is a sight to behold.
However, Icons are now more accessible than ever too. When they were first introduced, only the best-of-the-best cover ever hope to enlist their services - but now most players will be able to add an Icon to their ranks at some point during EA Sports FC 25's lifecycle.
Alongside a host of new features like FC IQ, there are 8 new Icons in EA Sports FC 25, 3 men and 5 women, to add to the list of more than 100 who appeared in the last EA Sports FC. Here's a look at every single one, as well as some speculation for who we might see in the future!
EAFC 25 New Icons
- Gianluigi Buffon - 91 OVR - GK - Juventus/Parma/Italy
Gigi Buffon had it all: ridiculous reach, explosive one-on-one reactions and unmatched positional sense.
How many greats of the game have we seen play on deep into their 30s in Italy’s top flight? But Buffon still managed to become the Serie A record appearance holder despite not even playing in the league for 4 seasons of his storied career.
His large frame and likely unique body type and animations are sure to make him a strong contender in EAFC 25, where new goalkeeping PlayStyles will could shake up the meta of usable goalkeepers.
- Gareth Bale - 88 OVR - RW - Wales/Golf/Madrid (in that order)
An arguably low rating for unarguably one of the greatest British players of all time, Gareth Bale brings rapid pace and unrivalled athleticism to EAFC 25.
It seems like EA is trying to deflate the ratings somewhat in FC 25 - it was the same with Hazard and Yaya Toure in a recent Hero reveal - probably to give Ultimate Team space for more special cards throughout the year.
Either way, Bale is sure to be a fast, powerful and deadly inside forward in the same vein as Garrincha and Jairzinho.
- Lotta Schlein - 90 OVR - ST - Sweden/Lyon
An unbelievably effective striker with exceptional goalscoring form over a nearly 20-year career, Lotta Schlein is one of just a few top flight players who scored more goals than she made appearances.
She’s similar to another Scandi Lyon legend, Norway’s Ada Hegerberg, if you’re looking for a comparison: tall, but with excellent dribbling skill and technique. If her PlayStyle+ is Finesse Shot as rumoured, then she might play a bit like Alex Morgan - who was very good throughout a lot of the early game in FC 24.
- Julie Foudy - 90 OVR - CM - USWNT
Homare Sawa and Camille Abily were two success stories of the introduction of Women’s Icons into FC 24, and Julie Foudy seems like another great player with a similar skill set: tireless midfield running with enough agility to win the ball back, shield it and progress it forward.
- Lillian Thuram - 88 OVR - RB - Parma/Juventus/France
Father of Inter’s Marcus and Juventus’ Khephren, World Cup winning defender Lillian Thuram is a legendary brick wall who will nicely complement many of the other Icon defenders.
Thuram is listed as a right-back in the reveal trailer, but he’s equally (if not more) known for operating at CB - a bit like Jules Kounde today - so he’ll offer options in both positions. Because of this versatility, and because he’ll be very quick and a great tackler, he’s sure to be both popular and expensive.
- Nadine Angerer - 92 OVR - GK - Germany
When I first started watching Women’s football, Nadine Angerer was as iconic and intimidating a presence as Oliver Khan or Manuel Neuer, an unbeatable shot stopper whose presence was enough to demoralise the opposition.
Hopefully, goalkeeper PlayStyles can make even smaller keepers - Angerer is 5ft 9” - viable.
- Aya Miyama - 90 OVR - LM - Japan
A true free-kick specialist, who famously smashed two home in one match against England at the 2007 World Cup, Aya Miyama will hopefully be a tricky winger who feels fast thanks to her small frame.
Dead Ball+ is 100% going to be her Playstyle, but hopefully she gets some more impactful ones in promos too. Her agility and technical prowess mean she'll probably be good in the new Rush mode too.
- Marinette Pichon - 88 OVR - ST - France
It’s hard to believe with the powerhouse that France is nowadays in both Women’s and Men’s football, but Marinette Pichon scored France’s debut Women’s World Cup goal in just 2003, the fourth edition of the FIFA-sanctioned tournament and the first France had attended.
Just about every highlight you can find of her is latching onto the end of a long through ball or smashing in a karate kick volley - a proper number 9.
EAFC 25 Full Icon List
Growing from a few classic players to an army of legends, if the returning list stays the same, then there will be more than 100 Icons in EA Sports FC 25.
Here’s everyone that appeared in the last game:
- Mia Hamm
- Brigit Prinz
- Homare Sawa
- Camille Abily
- Kelly Smith
- Casillas
- Lev Yashin
- Edwin van der Sar
- Petr Cech
- Peter Schmeichel
- Pele
- Zinedine Zidane
- David Beckham
- Thierry Henry
- Carlos Alberto
- Cafu
- Marco van Basten
- Eusebio
- Zico
- Roberto Baggio
- Raul
- George Best
- Andrea Pirlo
- Ronaldo Nazario
- Ronaldinho
- Johan Cryff
- Ferenc Puskas
- Garrincha
- Paolo Maldini
- Gerd Muller
- Sir Bobby Charlton
- Franco Baresi
- Xavi
- Dennis Bergkamp
- Ruud Gullit
- Ruud van Nistelrooy
- Rivaldo
- Didier Drogba
- Eric Cantona
- Socrates
- Phillip Lahm
- Gary Lineker
- Hristo Stoichkov
- Fabio Cannavaro
- Jairzinho
- Roberto Carlos
- Alessandro Del Piero
- Lothar Matthaus
- Ian Rush
- Gianfranco Zola
- Sol Campbell
- Roy Keane
- Gennaro Gattuso
- Gianluca Zambrotta
- Luis Hernandez
- Sir Bobby Moore
- Sir Kenny Dalglish
- Javier Zanetti
- Alessandro Nesta
- Hugo Sanchez
- Alan Shearer
- Kaka
- Samuel Eto’o
- Carles Puyol
- Emilio Butragueno
- Luis Figo
- Franck Ribery
- Juan Roman Riquelme
- Michael Laudrup
- Fernando Hierro
- Andriy Shevchencko
- Patrick Vieira
- Robin Van Persie
- Marcel Desailly
- Miroslav Klose
- Gheorghe Hagi
- Ian Wright
- Robert Pires
- Frank Rijkaard
- Nemanja Vidic
- Xabi Alonso
- Emmanuel Petit
- Juan Sebastian Veron
- Ashley Cole
- Michael Essien
- Henrik Larsson
- Hernan Crespo
- Clarence Seedorf
- Michael Ballack
- Fernando Torres
- Davor Suker
- Patrick Kluivert
- Claude Makelele
- John Barnes
- Frank Lampard
- Steven Gerrard
- Ronaldo Koeman
- Paul Scholes
- Wayne Rooney
- Bastian Schweinsteiger
- Michael Owen
- Rio Ferdinand
- Pavel Nedved
- Laurent Blanc
- David Trezeguet
EAFC 25 rumoured Icons
While we’ve likely seen the last of the new icons for EA Sports FC 25, a few legendary names are often tipped to appear at some point.
The main one is Diego Maradona, who used to appear as part of the Classic XI before EA’s licence to use his likeness expired a few years ago.
El Diego and Pele were usually tied for rating as the greatest players of all time, and that would surely be the case if he was ever to return. Plus, his dribbling would be incredible with the new Playstyles.
Another is the lion himself, Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Interestingly, Zlatan has had a long-standing dispute with EA over the use of his image, which was acquired via their contract with FIFPro like most other players.
This dispute was rumoured to be the reason that Zlatan, despite obviously deserving one, didn’t receive an End of an Era card during FIFA 23.
However, since the lines of communication have been opened in the past, this has led to speculation that Zlatan could eventually appear as an Icon once an agreement has been reached.
Finally, it’s always worth discussing which Icons might get hit with the downgrade to Hero (like Rui Costa and Jari Litmanen in FC 24).
Many of the long-time Icons who were introduced before Heroes were coined such as Luis Hernandez, David Trezeguet and Juan Sebastian Veron are barely used and could slot into the lower category. As could some of the other lesser used strikers like Davor Suker and Fernando Torres (I like Torres, but is one great season for Liverpool enough for an Icon).
When Yaya Toure, arguably one of top 5 African players of all time, is a Hero, then you can’t make much of a case for anyone on quality grounds. Then the World Cup isn’t a cut-off either, since Joan Capdevila won in 2010. Not even the Ballon d’Or separates Heroes from Icons (Jean-Pierre Papin won it in 1991).