Argentina & Lionel Messi FANS can celebrate winning the 2022 World Cup without spoiling the competition in Qatar. EA Sports FIFA 23 simulation preemptively crowned the champs.
EA Sports played all 64 matches from the group stage to the final in FIFA 23 and determined that Lionel Messi & Co. will win. EA Sports also predicts Messi will win the Golden Boot and Golden Ball for being the tournament’s top scorer and finest player.
🇪🇸✅ 2010
🇩🇪✅ 2014
🇫🇷✅ 2018
🇦🇷❓ 2022EA SPORTS has got it right since 2010 👀 See how the FIFA World Cup played out in the #FIFA23 simulation and have your say 🏆 https://t.co/rQ24tEwrTg pic.twitter.com/EuiyhQnPQI
— EA SPORTS FIFA (@EASPORTSFIFA) November 8, 2022
Messi and four Albiceleste teammates—Emiliano Martinez, Marcos Acuna, Leandro Paredes, and Rodrigo De Paul—made the projected Team of the Tournament. Marquinhos, Vinicius Junior, Richarlison, Raphael Varane, Kylian Mbappe, and Joao Cancelo of Brazil, France, and Portugal filled the remaining berths.
Before you write off EA Sports’ prediction as a PR stunt, consider their track record of correctly predicting World Cup winners. They correctly predicted Spain, Germany, and France as World Cup winners in 2010, 2014, and 2018 simulations.
EA Sports also made many World Cup predictions that failed and have aged poorly. In 2014, Brazil was predicted to win their home World Cup. Scholars may recall that in the semifinals, Germany humiliated the Selecao 7-1, shocking the globe and traumatizing the host nation.
In 2014, EA Sports predicted that defending champions Spain would beat Portugal 3-1 in a third-place playoff, but neither team advanced.
Isco was predicted to win the 2018 World Cup Golden Boot with five goals. The midfielder scored once (against Morocco in the group stage) as La Roja lost to hosts Russia in the round of 16 after a penalty shootout. However, the 2018 EA Sports simulation predicted that Antoine Griezmann would score five goals, and he scored four to finish second in the scoring charts as France won their second world title.
In 2018, David de Gea was predicted to win the best goalkeeper and Gabriel Jesus’ best young player. The former was severely criticized for a terrible handling blunder against Portugal in the group stage, while the latter had five appearances before being eliminated in the quarterfinals without scoring for Brazil.
You can’t win all. After predicting the last three World Cup winners, backing the team on a 35-game unbeaten streak—two behind Italy’s 37-game streak—seems like a good bet.
Who will win FIFA World Cup 2022? What do you think? Check out the FIFA World Cup 2022 Schedule and Official Broadcaster List.
