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If there are two things that are a big deal in Brazil, they are soccer and Gabriel Medina. No, Medina isn’t a pro footballer, but you better believe that he’s reached that pro footballer level of fame in his home country. And now, the two-time world champ and world’s best competitive surfer is a character in FIFA21.
FIFA, of course, is both the international governing body of club soccer (football to most of the rest of the world) and the video game series that Guinness claimed is the best-selling sports video game franchise in the world. That’s kind of a big deal, since there are a lot of video games floating around. According to the WSL, Medina’s addition to FIFA21 makes him the first pro surfer to be featured in a non-surf video game. I, however, have a very distinct memory of Kelly Slater floating around on a surfboard in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 or 3, I think. But no one has ever said I have a good memory, so I could very well be wrong.* I generally am, actually.**
Medina, as you likely know, rubs shoulders with Brazilian football star Neymar, and is one of Brazil’s most popular athletes, so it’s not a huge surprise to see him as a character in FIFA21. It is, though, a testament to Medina’s enormous popularity and the soaring popularity of surfing and pro surfers in general.
**according to my partner.
