‘I thought they were pulling my leg,’ Mumzy Stranger recalls, transporting M back to a surprise phone call he received from his label Desi Trill about a significant sync placement. The British-Bangladeshi R&B artist was in disbelief when he found out his track KI KORI, which also features Bangladeshi American singer-songwriter Muza, had been selected for the soundtrack of EA Sports FC 26 (formerly known as FIFA) — AKA the world’s biggest sports video game franchise.
‘When they told me they genuinely liked the vibe of the record, I was overwhelmed,’ he continues. ‘It was organic. It shows that they see everyone out there, which I appreciate.
‘The fact that it was the first Bangladeshi record [to ever appear on the game] made it that little more saucier.’
It was a similar story for VLURE bassist Niall Goldie upon receiving the news that the band’s Something Real had made the cut on the 103-strong soundtrack. The track, which also features Psweatpants, appears on the Glasgow rave-rockers’ debut album Escalate, which was released on the same day as EA Sports FC 26.
‘Everyone in the band grew up playing it, so it was top of the list,’ he explains. ‘The first one I bought was FIFA 2004, and Red Morning Light by Kings of Leon came on during the introduction scene. As a seven-year-old boy, that was the first time I'd ever heard Kings of Leon — that’s always stuck with me.’
Niall, who also namechecks Gorillaz’s Rhinestone Eyes and Kasabian (‘they’re synonymous with FIFA’), is among the millions of players across the world whose music tastes have been shaped by the carefully curated FIFA / EA Sports FC soundtracks. These syncs have breathed new life into so-called ‘FIFA songs’ like John Newman’s Love Me Again and granted very welcome international exposure for the likes of Biig Piig, Willow Kayne and Home Counties.
‘Everyone in VLURE grew up playing FIFA, so an EA Sports FC sync was top of the list.’ - Niall Goldie
London-based soul artist Yazmin Lacey has been another beneficiary of this particular sync opportunity. Her track Ain’t I Good For You marks her second successive EA Sports FC placement after her 2024 Ezra Collective collaboration, God Gave Me Feet For Dancing, appeared on last year’s instalment of the series.
‘I’m buzzing, and I don't think it feels different from last year,’ she enthuses, adding she ‘would love’ a regular sync partnership with EA Sports FC. ‘When I think about God Gave Me Feet For Dancing, it's giving tekkers, winning and victory. Ain’t I Good For You is giving flavour and flair. “Ain't I good for you? / I'm that sweet, that salt, that taste” that made your life better. You want to be that player, right? A lot of the songs [on the soundtrack] have that high energy about them to get you through the games.’
The concept of a ‘FIFA song’ in 2025 is more fluid than ever. On this year’s soundtrack, Mumzy, VLURE and Yazmin are rubbing shoulders with the likes of Pulp, PinkPantheress and Ed Sheeran.
‘Five or even 10 years ago, you would associate [the EA Sports FC soundtrack] with big, anthemic tunes that have these catchy choruses,’ notes Niall, who puts the allure of Something Real down to its ‘anthemic throwback’ feeling and elements of big beat. ‘Obviously, they're branching out a wee bit now and moving with the times.’
Football is a common language spoken all over the globe, making the diversity of the EA Sports FC soundtrack all the more potent. Referencing the achievement of being selected by the EA music team for this prestigious sync, Mumzy says: ‘There’s thousands of songs that come out every day from all around the world, from different languages and cultures.’
'Getting synced in a video game like EA Sports FC can really expand my audience.' - Yazmin Lacey
For Yazmin, being synced on EA Sports FC means that her music will be listened to by players who might normally engage with her chosen sound.
‘On social media, you can get really tied up in the presentation of the music. But that doesn't really apply in the game,’ the POWER UP and Momentum Fund grantee tells M. ‘If you said to someone, “Do you want to listen to this soul-pop-jazz artist?” they might be like, “Not really”. But in a different medium [like video games]? It can really expand my audience, as well as the musical palette of those people playing the game.’
Though EA give away precious little about its curation process, Mumzy has his own theories as to why Ki Kori was included in this year’s soundtrack. ‘That beat — you've got no choice when you hear that song. Your body starts moving!’ he says, having also noted that his collaborator DJ Lyan’s sampling of a referee’s whistle may have further aided the cause. ‘Football is a moving sport.’
For all three artists, securing such a significant sync still comes secondary to the creation of the art itself. But this opportunity has opened their eyes to the video games market, as opposed to the more traditional film and TV syncs.
‘The exposure is crazy, because of the replay-ability of [EA Sports FC],’ suggests Niall as he notes how this has comfortably been VLURE’s most significant sync to date. ‘Somebody's probably not going to watch a TV show or movie as commonly as they would play a video game.’
For a writer as prolific as Mumzy, sync provides a pathway for the hundreds of songs that ‘pile up’ to see the light of day. He acknowledges the open-minded approach of video game curators like EA: ‘[Video game music] doesn’t have to be boxed off to a particular scene or a piece of acting that's not relevant to what you're watching. Maybe Ki Kori made it on to a video game because I wasn't thinking about [writing for] a video game.’
'The fact that my song was the first Bangladeshi record to appear on EA Sports FC made it that little more saucier.' - Mumzy Stranger
Yazmin agrees, highlighting that high-quality songwriting can enable tracks to live multiple lives — sync opportunities representing just one example. ‘A good song is relatable to more than just one particular scenario,’ she tells M. ‘The video game world is multi-sensory. I want to make something that is a good way of explaining what I'm experiencing, and if that's good enough, it becomes universal.’
With EA Sports FC 26 barely one week old, Ain’t I Good For You, Ki Kori and Something Real are only just starting to form core associative memories for the game’s millions of players. That applies to the music creators themselves: Niall scoring a goal with his beloved Celtic, Mumzy watching his three kids play, or Yazmin getting ‘thrashed’ in-game by her bandmates in their dressing room/
‘People associate those songs with fun and good memories, and I really like that as an idea,’ concludes Niall. ‘That's what the FIFA, and now EA Sports FC soundtracks have always been about. If people are listening to the song and associating that with having fun, then I'm all for it.’
EA Sports FC 26 is out now.
