Former Manchester United midfield star Michael Carrick is the latest player to receive Fifa 18’s new “end of an era” status.
Carrick’s special 94-rated purple and blue card is a part of “Futties”, an end-of-season celebration in the wildly-popular EA Sports video game series’ Fifa Ultimate Team mode.
Only Barcelona legend Andres Iniesta, and former Juventus and Italy duo Gianluigi Buffon and Andrea Pirlo have received the same distinction this year.
Players can obtain the 37-year-old Carrick via a premium squad-building challenge (SBC). The special item is available for a limited time and cannot be traded thereafter.
Previous Fifa editions only awarded end of an era cards to retired players, but developers have introduced a fraction of players who have recently ended long runs with their current club.
Carrick spent 12 years at United, winning five Premier League trophies and one Champions League, among others. He played his last match against Watford on May 13 and has since joined up with the United coaching staff.
Retired midfield conductor Pirlo is perhaps the easiest end of an era player to obtain. Only an estimated 10,000-30,000 Fifa coins’ worth of squad-building is required to secure the 91-rated former AC Milan and New York City player; user comments labelled the card as a “warm-up for Iniesta”.
World Cup winner Iniesta recently moved to J-League outfit Vissell Kobe after spending his whole career at Barcelona.
The Spaniard’s 96-rating card is considered much more difficult to obtain than Carrick’s and Pirlo’s because of his superior statistics in pace and acceleration.
The 40-year-old goalkeeper Buffon – who joined Paris Saint-Germain from Juventus this summer – is rated an outstanding 98.
However, several users are tentative of splashing out on the Italy legend as they argue a goalkeeper’s in-game role is much less than an outfield player’s.
While the unique end-of-era cards is a nice gesture of appreciation for some of football’s most seasoned vets, most gamers have already turned their attention towards pre-ordering Fifa 19.
Thew new entry in the series is expected to be released on September 28. The Futties campaign ends on August 14.
