Icons, soundtrack and football culture

Few games have shaped football culture off the pitch like this one. FIFA 98 was the series' first licensed soundtrack, and Blur's 'Song 2' over its intro became so attached to the game that the song still reads as football shorthand; annual soundtracks after it functioned as music discovery for a generation of players, a role EA still programs deliberately — FC 27's list runs to 120 tracks from 36 countries (Dork).

In Ultimate Team, Legends cards arrived in FIFA 14 and were relaunched as Icons in FIFA 18, when Pelé, Maradona, Henry, Yashin and Ronaldo Nazário headlined the set across all platforms, with multiple career-era versions per Icon. Women's Icons joined from FC 24, keeping retired greats playable alongside current stars.