In FIFA 19, the story of a teenager has garnered attention on reddit. An EA employee also read the post – and reached out to the 18-year-old.
About a week ago, an 18-year-old FIFA player spoke up in the reddit forum. He shared that he was going through a difficult phase, and FIFA 19 helped him. Over 2500 users left an upvote as his story touched many.
A lesson for life that FIFA 19 taught him
The story of the young man: The user moldlylungs writes that he turned 18 a few months ago. However, his life changed drastically, making him feel like a small child rather than a young adult.
The reason: He is facing a brain surgery. He has to take strong painkillers, has gone through a lot in recent weeks, and is constantly reliant on help in his daily life. For the first time in years, he cried in front of his parents.
How FIFA 19 helps him: To distract himself from this hard time, he plays FIFA. He can even do this while lying in bed, hallucinating because of the painkillers and dozing off repeatedly.
Logging into FIFA every day and seeing the new game content – that brings a smile to his face. It makes him happy to play Squad Battles with fun teams, even if he plays on professional mode “only” to avoid hurting himself more, as he writes.
“As sad as I am right now – playing this game […] has made my terrible experience much less terrible,” says the user.
What he has to say to all FIFA fans: “The next time you think the game is rubbish, or how unlucky you are with packs, it could always be worse. Life guarantees you nothing, but that shouldn’t stop you from seeing the good in things – even if it’s just something small like FIFA.”
EA has a gift for the teenager
How the community reacts: Many FIFA fans wished him a speedy recovery and all the best for the surgery. And EA also caught wind of this post.
How EA responds: On Sunday evening, the teenager spoke up again. He received a message from an EA employee stating they would like to send him a “Get well soon” gift. He uploaded the message on imgur as proof.
Two days later, he received the gift: A FUT 19 jersey:
Although he has often spoken negatively about FIFA and EA, this was truly a “super nice gesture.” He thanks EA and all those who wrote him kind things.
Many community members also commented that this was a great gesture from EA.
How is the user doing now? He has recovered well from the surgery. He doesn’t feel overly well, but that is probably normal after an operation.
The next big event that the young man and the rest of the community can look forward to will likely be the Winter upgrades in FUT 19.
