New York City FC's Instagram account has revealed the very first piece of concrete info for FIFA 19: last week the MLS club's roster went through EA's comprehensive facial scanning process for inclusion in the game.
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Luxembourg centre-back Maxime Chanot is the first player confirmed to have been head-scanned, after he featured in said Instagram post, which – incredibly – was deleted while I was writing this story. Thankfully, reddit user Soovin screen-capped it just in time:
The caption "@easportsfifa Head Scan Day" accompanied the pic before deletion. With it being highly unlikely that player faces are to be patched into FIFA 18 six months after release, there can be no doubt which edition the images are intended for.
NYCFC do currently have real-face representation in-game, via David Villa. This scanning session should see him joined by the likes of keeper Sean Johnson, winger Rodney Wallace, and new signing Saad Abdul-Salaam, in addition to Chanot.
Also known to have been scanned at some point are English League Two club Forest Green Rovers. This was always presumed to have been for FIFA 18, but the scans have never materialised in-game. Perhaps, then, EA is holding back on including the plucky Cotswolders until FIFA 19 – a risky move, given that at time of writing they're in grave danger of being relegated from the football league.
GR will have plenty more to come on FIFA 19 as features and other snippets emerge throughout the summer.
Still focussed on FIFA 18? Then check out our look at every Premier League player to receive a February upgrade in Ultimate Team.
