FIFA 17 goes on sale at midnight, giving thousands of Cumbrians the chance to play football as their Carlisle United heroes.

But there’s one group of young men who won’t be rushing to their gaming consoles to play for Carlisle United – the Blues players themselves.

As Andy Hall, the club’s media officer, said: “It’s probably the most popular in the club house, where some of the players stay during the week.

“The players all talk about it but you won’t necessarily find that Danny Grainger wants to be Danny Grainger, for example. They usually all play as Barcelona or Real Madrid.”

Andy says that over the years, FIFA has played an integral role in team bonding, particularly when it comes to travelling away from home.

“There’s a console on the bus and more often than not the whole journey can be taken up with the players playing FIFA,” he says. “Everyone wants to be FIFA king.”

He also believes that the game creates a good bond among members of the squad.


Andy Hall “It’s something to do and it’s something for all the lads to talk about,” Andy adds. “It creates a bit of banter among them and a bit of light-hearted competition.”

In years gone by, some members of the squad have looked at how they fare compared to others.

“They’re all on there, so there’s been a few jokes about it in the past,” Andy says. “But we’ve not had a long away trip yet, so we’ll see if that happens again when the time comes.”

If you take a stroll around any shopping centre in Britain tonight, you might be surprised to find scores of gamers waiting for the latest release.

There are only a handful of titles that generate such global interest but FIFA – made by EA Sports – is one of them. Alongside Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and Fall Out, it is a game that has captured the imagination of millions around the world.

Indeed, FIFA 12 still holds the record for the fastest selling sports game ever. More than 3.2m copies were sold, generating more than $186m in its first week of release.

But this year could be different for a number of reasons. First of all it is the first time since 2013 that the Barcelona and Argentina superstar Lionel Messi is not featured as the cover star. Instead, he has been replaced by Marco Reus, the German international and Borussia Dortmund attacking midfielder.

After it was announced, Nick Channon, senior producer for EA Sports, said: “It is incredible to see how fans get behind their favorite player – Marco plays for a great club, is really fun to watch, and he is very popular in FIFA Ultimate Team, so it makes a lot of sense that the fans picked him.”

“Reus joins an elite group of international football superstars who have appeared on the cover of FIFA over the years.”

Secondly, this year has also seen Pro Evolution Soccer – the long-time rival of the FIFA series – once again surge in the popularity stakes.

Indeed, a review of the latest Pro Evo offering says: “When it comes to the crunch, hardcore football gamers are after the most authentic experience possible and it’s difficult to see how the fanfare of FIFA 17 will dampen this devastating on-pitch display from Pro Evo.”

But Martin Pearson, who works at Game in Workington, disagrees.

“I think that FIFA will still be more popular,” he says. “It seems to be the more popular one among the masses.”


Is Mike Jones really the Blues' best?

The Fifa 17 ratings have already been released for Carlisle United’s squad.

First-choice goalkeeper Mark Gillespie has been given a rating of 61, a one point improvement from last year while Max Crocombe, a New Zealand under-23 international, is a 58.

Centre backs Michael Raynes and Mark Ellis have been given a 63 and 64 respectively, while Tom Miller moves up two to 57 and David Atkinson is a 58.

Macaulay Gillesphey, on loan from Newcastle United, is rated as a 59 while summer signing Shaun Brisley is the only “silver” within the United defence and is a 66.

Blues skipper Danny Grainger has moved up two ratings from last season and is a 63, while Patrick Brough is a 58.

But the United player with the highest score is Mike Jones, who has been named as a left winger and is rated 67, with 90 for his acceleration.

Elsewhere in midfield, Luke Joyce has been given a 59 and Jason Kennedy a 64.

Russell Penn, who is currently on loan in the north-east with non-league Gateshead is rated a 60 while summer signing Joe McKee scores 61.

Nicky Adams, a former Welsh under-21 international is named as a right midfielder and scores 66 while Jamie Devitt is also named in the same position and has been given a 62, with 82 for agility.

Bermudian Reggie Lambe another of the Blues’ midfield named as a right midfielder and scores 63, with an 81 sprint speed.

Meanwhile United’s top scorer Charlie Wyke has been given an improvement of two from his FIFA 16 rating and is 61.

Jabo Ibehre, a favourite of the Blue Army, is rated as 63 but is given 80 for stamina and 92 for strength.

Fellow striker Shaun Miller is also a 63 and is given a score of 84 for balance.

The rating of Derek Asamoah, currently back training with Carlisle, is not available within the free agent network in the game – he was 61 in FIFA 16.


The store, along with others around the country, has been getting football fans in the mood by offering a “fastest goal” competition, with the winner from each shop scooping a free copy of the game.

“We’ve had the game set up and you have to play as Real Madrid away at Barcelona in the Camp Nou,” Martin says. “It’s five minutes a half and you have to score the quickest goal from kick off.

“I think the fastest the goal so far is after about five minutes, but that’s with the clock sped up.”

Like many chains the shop, on Pow Street, will be opening at midnight to allow enthusiasts the opportunity to get their hands on the latest offering as soon as possible.

“It’s one of the most popular games along with Call of Duty. We’ve had plenty of people pre-ordering it and we hope that there’ll be people coming along at midnight.”

But fans who have pre-ordered the game digitally must download the file itself, which is reported to be between 32 and 44GB on the Xbox One and between 39 and 40GB on the PlayStation 4.

There have been reports that some gamers have had to wait hours for the full game to install and EA Sports has already made it possible for those users to pre-load the game.

People have been advised to download the game as soon as possible, as the EA Sports servers are likely to slow down closer to the official launch.