EA has announced that its annual football simulation game series, EA Sports FC, will return on September 26, 2025, with EA Sports FC 26. Alongside Zlatan Ibrahimovic as the cover athlete for the Ultimate Edition of the game, Jude Bellingham and Jamal Musiala have been revealed as the main cover athletes. EA also showed players their first look at gameplay for this year’s entry into the long-running series, with a trailer that claims EA Sports FC 26 includes fixes for several key issues players have with the games.

Earlier this week, EA announced that it would reveal EA Sports FC 26, teasing the return of Ibrahimovic as one of the cover athletes. The process these games usually follow, is that the first trailer features very little, if any gameplay, and is instead a vehicle for introducing the tone of the year’s entry, cover athletes, and the release date. We got all of that in today’s trailer, and on top of it, we got a good look at some gameplay, and the improvements that EA is touting.

Throughout the trailer, text bubbles appear posing as comments from players criticizing different elements of gameplay, such as the complaint that EA is too slow to show actual gameplay. EA attempts to change the narrative at the top of the trailer, switching from a cutscene to gameplay, and into a sequence where EA shows changes and fixes it has made in EA Sports FC 26 that solve the problems players have with the games.

The message of this year’s entry is “Innovation powered by you in every mode,” and that the overhauled gameplay experience has been built directly on player feedback. Whether that’s actually how it’ll feel when players get to test it for themselves remains to be seen.

“FC 26 reflects our ongoing commitment to building this game with and for our community,” said John Shepherd, vice president and general manager of EA Sports FC in a press release. “We are players too, and that shared passion drives everything we do. This year brings an overhauled gameplay experience, new tournaments and live events in FUT, all-new archetype customization in clubs, and a career mode that comes alive through evolving challenges. We can’t wait for players to feel the difference this September and help shape the future of FC.”