What are the best FIFA songs ever? We know you have one in the back of your mind – even if you've never played the game.
The FIFA and EA Sports FC soundtracks have taken on lives of themselves – helping to promote new artists, helping to share old songs with new audiences and giving us pure bangers in the screentime between matches. So let's run through our 100 favourites over the years – sorted partly by how much of a banger these tracks were, how iconic they were for the soundtrack, but also how well they fitted into the game itself.
We asked our team for their favourites, collated the answers and even got a couple of FIFA experts involved, too. What you'll find is the ultimate list that will bring back huge nostalgia. This is about as close to NME as you'll ever find us going, so feel free to tell us how bad our music taste is @FourFourTwo.
The 100 best FIFA songs ever: 100. Glass Animals - Youth (FIFA 17)
Glass Animals were always on the cusp of becoming a really big band, depending on how poppy their next single was – think Kevin Strootman, waiting for a Premier League move. Luckily though, the group have always kept it cool and delivered banger after banger that don’t sell out. Youth is one such cut from FIFA 17.
Watch Youth on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
99. Radiohead - Myxamatosis (FIFA 2004)
Right, let’s be honest: Radiohead in a FIFA game is weird, particularly Hail To The Thief-era Radiohead. It doesn’t feel like the kind of thing they would do, and they don’t feel like the kind of band EA Sports would go for.
Nonetheless, there they are – and in fairness, Myxamatosis was rather more accessible than a lot of their increasingly outré output. And it’s a cracking song, too, so why question it?
Watch Myxamatosis on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
98. Sping King - Who Are You (FIFA 17)
Spring King were one of those groups that sort of came out of nowhere, were big for all of about 18 months and then seemingly dropped off the face of the Earth. A Michu band, if you’d like.
And just like an old re-run of Premier League Years, this will always bring back fond memories. Great jam.
Watch Who Are You on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
97. Catfish and the Bottlemen - Postpone (FIFA 17)
Ahh, Catfish. If you're not aware, the Bottlemen intend on playing the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next summer around the same time as Oasis. Postpone was good – that good?
Maybe the band need to get FIFA gamers to fill out the ground for this one. Postpone was one of the better cuts from their early stuff.
Watch Postpone on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
96. Miles Kane - Don't Forget Who You Are (FIFA 14)
Arctic Monkeys have never been on FIFA. Shocking, we know. But close friend Miles Kane has. Don’t Forget Who You Are fit the bill as the retro, guitar-smashing drive of FIFA 14. It was a hell of a soundtrack that year, with this just one of the highlights.
Watch Don't Forget Who You Are on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
95. Architecture in Helsinki - Escapee (FIFA 12)
So bubblegum sweet it makes your teeth hurt, Architecture In Helsinki shifted away from their earlier Modest Mouse-esque sound to produce the synth-heavy Moment Bends in 2011.
The Aussie outfit took their pursuit of that very on-fleek vibe so far that some critics wondered if it was actually intended as a parody – but whatever their intentions, it commanded attention and got you tapping your foot along whether you actually liked it or not.
Watch Escapee on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
94. Major Lazer - Hold The Line (FIFA 10)
Major Lazer seem tailor-made for FIFA, really. They’re big enough for your mum to have heard of, but still cool enough not to be on her Spotify playlist. The moombahton trio’s track Hold The Line is to date the only song that’s made it onto FIFA – maybe because it's an instruction to the Tottenham defence on set pieces.
This is a good un, too – and it came before they got really famous, too. Textbook EA, that.
Watch Hold The Line on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
93. Fontaines DC - Starburster (EA Sports FC 25)
Yes, it's only just been announced. Yes, it's already an all-timer.
The grungey drums, the Irish drawl blaring out like Roy Keane delivering a half-time team-talk. There's a lot of hype about Fontaines DC's latest album and this serves as the perfect appetiser for the release. Starburster is aggressive, catchy and perfect FIFA fodder.
Watch Starburster on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
92. The xx - Dangerous (FIFA 18)
A defining electronica group of the 2010s, The xx are one of those acts that just seem tailor-made for spots in adverts, films, game soundtracks and the like. Dangerous – with its distinctive brass and big, bad bassline is more of the same – though it's a lot less dark and introspective than much of the band’s earlier work.
Let’s face it, if you had the first album on in the manager’s office when you were trying to sign Paolo Dybala, it probably wouldn’t set the kind of tone you’d be looking for.
Watch Dangerous on YouTube / Listen to Spotify
91. Billie Eilish - CHIHIRO (EA Sports FC 25)
Just like the cover of Eilish's Hit Me Hard And Soft record, CHIHIRO is a song that sounds submerged beneath the water. It surfs with an elegant melody before taking a trip into the deep, as lyrics talk of an addicition-like relationship coming to an end and the cold turkey of having to survive alone.
Honestly, it's not really the first song of 2024 that we'd associate with Career Mode. Bit dark. We thought Houdini by Dua Lipa might get an airing instead.
Still, we're not complaining. Every now, a prog-pop belter needs its place on this soundtrack. We're here for it.
Watch CHIHIRO on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
90. Childish Gambino - Feels Like Summer (FIFA 19)
Writer, actor, comedian, rapper, singer, director, producer… Donald Glover is probably annoying good on FUT, too. Infectious Childish Gambino track Feels Like Summer was perhaps the most high-profile inclusion in FIFA 19 - but no one is too big for this game. With its mellow synths and trademark smooth vocals, this was a great pick for the game.
Watch Feels Like Summer on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
89. Lemaitre - We Got U ft. The Knocks (FIFA 17)
French electronic duo Lemaitre producing a stadium anthem for the masses? Yaaasss please.
Included on FIFA 17, this was another one of those songs that will become forever interwoven with the tale of Alex Hunter. Whether this was a comforting track to you when you were sent on loan to Aston Villa or a triumphant battle cry before taking to the Wembley pitch to face Gareth whats-his-name in the FA Cup final, this song was absolutely glorious.
Watch We Got U ft. The Knocks on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
88. Jungle - Beat 54 (All Good Now) (FIFA 19)
Jungle are one of the best British bands of the past decade. Though they continue to grow in stature – even winning BRIT awards – they're still cool and we still look forward to any FIFA soundtrack that they're a part of.
Beat 54 is another moody, low-tempo effort from the act that skulks rather than blares. It's perfect mood music for The Journey and still one of the band's staples.
Watch Beat 54 (All Good Now) on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
87. Chvrches - We Sink (FIFA 14)
Alright, so nowadays it sounds a bit like Bo Burnham is going to come in and sing about his horror at reaching his 30s or parodically pay homage to Jeff Bezos – but that’s not really Chvrches’ fault, is it?
In the post-MGMT age, this kind of indietronica felt right at home in a FIFA game, managing to be both achingly cool and uplifting at the same time.
Watch We Sink on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
86. ArrDee - Oliver Twist (FIFA 22)
There are those that blanch about rap music being prevalent in the FIFA games. And actually a lot of that comes from hip-hop fans who themselves would rather listen to colourful indie when they're cutting about Ultimate Team, as a break from the norm of what they listen to.
It's hard to deny ArrDee's Oliver Twist as anything other than a bop, mind. That twisted string sample is delicious, as the Brighton native chats about “just wanting some more”, chanelling the spirit of Boehly-era Chelsea. Love it.
Watch Oliver Twist on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
85. Tiggs Da Author - Run (FIFA 16)
This track was featured in the movie Bridget Jones’s Baby but we’d wager that the FIFA stamp of approval was a much bigger deal for Tiggs. Run is a fun, fast-paced pop song that was popular that it was later reworked with an added verse from Lady Leshur (of “brush your teeth” fame).
Back on FIFA 16, it was one of the quirkier tracks on the playlist. A bit like having Carl Jenkinson in your FUT squad for banter.
Watch Run on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
84. Foals - Mountain At My Gates (FIFA 16)
Foals combine the sophistication of county-mates Radiohead with the thick distortion of the indie scene they were born from – yet they’re comfortable headlining festivals and appearing on daytime radio.
Mountain At My Gates is arguably the most perfect piece of music they’ve ever produced. If it were a football team it would be Leeds United under Bielsa: powerful, beautiful and suddenly taking you by surprise by upping the noise in the final third.
What a song. We couldn't not include this, now could we?
Watch Mountain At My Gates on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
83. Crystal Fighters - Follow (FIFA 13)
If we have a criticism of FIFA’s earlier soundtracks, it is that for a long time they were very Anglocentric in their outlook, picking songs that evoked the ginnels of Manchester rather football in the favelas.
The Latin influences punch through immediately on Follow, though, with the English-Spanish act fittingly offering up a song that stayed true to the prevailing ethos while still paving the way for the likes of Bad Bunny to go all the way in later years.
Watch Follow on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
82. Kygo - ID (FIFA 16)
No doubt about it, Kygo has soundtracked the anthem of that gap year in Thailand that you never went on. Tropical house is a maligned 'genre' but given his Norwegianness, poppy melodies and bouncy beats, EA just had to give him a tune sooner or later.
ID is a decent compromise – it doesn’t feature an annoying vocalist, instead eschewing chart ambitions for being a subtle and simple piece of chilled out bliss. Kygo later added vocals to this one, courtesy of X Factor’s Ella Henderson. We prefer this version, though.
Watch ID on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
81. Madeon - Imperium (FIFA 15)
In the middle of the last decade, Nantes-born producer Hugo Leclercq - better known by his mononym Madeon - became the next big name in a French house scene that included the likes of Daft Punk and Justice.
Imperium was as big and bold as the EDM that had been scattered across FIFA in the 2010s, while still pumping with the French house of the previous decade. It’s one of those tracks on FIFA 15 that was impossible to ignore, whether you loved it or despised it.
Watch Imperium on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
80. Little Simz - Fear No Man (FIFA 22)
FIFA could have picked virtually anything off Little Simz’s stunning Sometimes I Might Be Introvert and it would have been a smash, but Fear No Man was exactly the right choice.
The track wears its African influences on its sleeve and unavoidably makes any football fan think of the 2010 World Cup as a result – but is unmistakably 2020s London and, most importantly, an absolute banger. You’d spend an extra minute or two on your team selection just to hear it to completion.
Watch Fear No Man on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
79. Loyal - Moving As One (FIFA 17)
An anthemic, thumping, drum-led anthem of a FIFA track. You can actually imagine this being the matchday chant of some small and just-happy-to-be-here South American nation at a World Cup. If you didn’t get pumped selecting your team during this song, you either had no soul, or you were the manager of West Brom and therefore contractually obliged to be miserable.
Watch Moving As One on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
78. Prides - Out of the Blue (FIFA 15)
Sounding for all the world like Glasvegas’ drummer collaborating with Robyn, the short-lived Glaswegian band provided this aspirational anthem to the FIFA soundtrack hot on the heels of performing at the closing ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
This is what sports music sounded like in 2014, kids. This, and exactly this.
Watch Out of the Blue on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
77. Air - Surfing On A Rocket (FIFA 2005)
Like Arsene Wenger in the late '90s, EA was a dab-hand for bringing great French exports to wider attention – and AIR are one of the greatest Gallic groups of all time in our opinion. The downtempo electronica duo are best known for Moon Safari tracks Sexy Boy and Kelly Watch The Stars but were chosen in 2005, with their track, Surfing on a Rocket. It’s one of the more understated songs of FIFA’s early days, but one of the best tracks on that particular year’s line-up.
Watch Surfing On A Rocket on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
76. Seu Jorge - Tive Razao (FIFA 07)
Seu Jorge might be best known for his spine-tingling David Bowie covers in Portuguese, but FIFA lovers of a certain vintage will know him as the soothing, scratchy voice on this mystical ditty. A great example of the phenomenal world music the FIFA bods collect every year for our listening pleasure.
Also, a song that immediately gets FFT in the mood for a Nandos.
Watch Tive Razao on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
75. Society - Protocol (FIFA 17)
Forget FIFA for one second, this might actually be one of the best tunes of the past 10 years, full stop. Seriously, how was this not more popular outside of a computer game?
The crashing symbols, the powerful lyrics, the wailing vocals. It belongs over the closing credits of a Guy Richie movie. Instead, we got to breathe it in after scoring a late winner with Adebayo Akinfenwa in League Two. We’re not complaining; in fact, we’re just grateful FIFA brought it to our attention.
Watch Protocol on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
74. Borns - Faded Heart (FIFA 18)
There's something very ‘David Bowie at Eurovision’ about Borns – and we don't mean that as an insult. Given that much of FIFA's soundtrack can be described as similar, there was always going to be room on this list for him, right?
Watch Faded Heart on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
73. Sam Sparro - Black & Gold (FIFA 09)
This might just be us, but this is the archetypal ‘only know it from FIFA’ song out of all of them on this list.
Serving as a kind of 21st-century funkatronic take on Peggy Lee’s Fever, Black and Gold was the standout song on the FIFA 09 soundtrack, and the perfect accompaniment for endlessly R2-curling free kicks into the top corner in the Be A Pro training mode that preceded the menu.
Watch Black & Gold on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
72. Broods - Peach (FIFA 19)
Jangly synth, crashing drums and some indeterminable lyrics occasionally involving the word “Peach” - this is so obviously a FIFA song. Another one that would snap you into action with its pure energy. A half-time pep talk from Rafa Benitez in song form, and one you could whack on at a garden party and get a few fist bumps from music lovers and FIFA fans alike. Instantly likeable and instantly recognizable as a song from the game.
Watch Peach on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
71. Kasabian - Comeback Kid (FIFA 17)
This was a huge moment for EA – the moment they commissioned a theme song for their The Journey mode. And who else would you ask to soundtrack such a thing?
The fifth single from Kasabian’s 2017 album For Crying Out Loud, Comeback Kid had FIFA written all over it. A hark back to the classic days of thudding guitar and mellow basslines, it was as reliable as Tony Pulis in a relegation scrap.
Not the band’s greatest ever banger, but a safe pair of hands for a FIFA playlist and one you could kick back and enjoy on a rainy afternoon’s FIFA sesh.
Watch Comeback Kid on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
70. Two Door Cinema Club - Sleep Alone (FIFA 13)
The Northern Irish band really had their moment in the sun around this period, making themselves the default inoffensive choice for any and all compilers of video game music.
Initially a kind of charmingly youthful evolution of We Are Scientists’ sound, Two Door Cinema Club were more mature and self-assured by the time they go to Sleep Alone, taken from their second album. We don’t think you’d get quite so much of something like this on a FIFA soundtrack now; but then, that’s why we like it.
Watch Sleep Alone on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
69. LSD - Genius (FIFA 19)
While the first two editions of The Journey opted for high-octane, laddish intros, FIFA went for something different in the final instalment. The title sequence features Kim Hunter – Alex’s little sister – juggling a football career with her homework, soundtracked by Genius, from supergroup LSD (that’s Labrinth, Sia and Diplo).
It’s a theatrical song and as you can imagine from the artists involved, immaculately produced with excellent vocals. Great pick all round.
Watch Genius on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
68. Off Bloom - Falcon Eye (FIFA 18)
Slow, pulsing and with a fantastically produced instrument, Falcon Eye was one of the highlights of FIFA 18. No, you've never heard of Off Bloom: but you didn't need to have. This was the soundtrack to whipping free-kicks way over the bar in practice (or was that just us?).
Watch Falcon Eye on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
67. Peter, Bjorn and John - Young Folks (FIFA 08)
Along with Justice v Simian’s We Are Your Friends, this infectious whistling classic was a staple of student indie club nights for years after its release in summer 2006.
For those of feeling all the older, it’s about as nostalgic as it’s possible to get of a golden age when we still had reasonable hairlines, jawlines and waistlines. Shout out to the old Leeds Uni Tunnel Club crowd: chances are we tried and failed to pull you to Young Folks at some point.
Watch Young Folks on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
66. Billie Eilish - you should see me in a crown (FIFA 19)
Enough of the fun, the serene, the anthemic – you should see me in a crown took things to a dark and terrifying place and we loved it. A creepy beat mixed with sinister lyrics (and a music video which is genuinely horrific) offer something a bit different to the norm on FIFA 19 (oh, and it's named after a line that a serial killer uttered in BBC show, Sherlock).
Not the song you’d want coming on while playing late at night by yourself with your parents out for the evening. Spookier than Neil Warnock grinning menacingly outside your bedroom window.
Watch you should see me in a crown on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
65. Portugal. The Man - Live In The Moment (FIFA 18)
Portugal. The Man may well be considered a one-hit wonder in the United Kingdom, following the explosive success of Feel It Still, but the Alaska-based rockers – yes really, Alaska: it's just them and Sarah Palin – have been staples of FIFA soundtrack a few times over the years. Live In The Moment is every bit as big, crashing and anthemic as an indie song in FIFA needs to be these days.
For our money, it’s definitely the best thing that Portugal has contributed to FIFA. That’s Portugal. The Man, not Portugal. The Country.
Watch Live In The Moment on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
64. Bomba Estereo - Soy Yo (FIFA 16)
EA love a Spanish-speaking artist on the jukebox. At least we think it’s Spanish and not Portuguese…?
Viral hit Soy Yo, featured actress Sarai Gonzalez, has over 23 million views on YouTube and is the biggest track on an album that scooped a Latin Grammy. Yet it’s better known for being that shouty song on the FIFA edition that Jordan Henderson on the cover and being in a Deezer advert. You win some, you lose some, eh Bomba Estereo?
Watch Soy Yo on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
63. Doves - Black and White Town (FIFA 06)
Alongside Elbow, Doves offered an updated take on Britpop to ensure it evolved into something just different enough to take the English indie-pop scene into the new millennium without frightening Oasis fans into realisations about their losing battle against the relentless march of time.
Musically upbeat but lyrically nihilistic, Black and White Town offers a scathing commentary on life in the kinds of satellite towns around England that only the lucky and socially mobile are able to escape – but if you don’t listen to the words, it’s perfect menu music.
Watch Black and White Town on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
62. Disclosure - Omen ft. Sam Smith (FIFA 16)
It’s not often that returning to the same collaboration spells genius – look at Mourinho at Chelsea. Disclosure’s first hit with Sam Smith, Latch, became a global smash that would catapult both into superstardom. But for our money, Omen is better.
This was a great way of crowbarring a name as big as Sam Smith onto FIFA 16 with going down too poppier a route. The track has the typical stuttering beat and squelching synths that were all the rage when EA first started taking this curation business seriously, and though it was a big hit, it never felt overplayed or like it had overstayed its welcome.
Watch Omen ft. Sam Smith on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
61. Kwabs - Walk (FIFA 15)
Like so many Golden Boy nominees, Kwabs should have been much bigger than he actually was. Walk might be a one-hit wonder but it's no Mambo No.5 – this was a stuttering, classy number that is synonymous with a stunning Barcelona side to match it.
Watch Walk on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
60. Yeasayer - ONE (FIFA 11)
If we’re being harsh, Yeasayer were a poor man’s MGMT. If we’re being truthful, ONE is the greatest song that MGMT never wrote. Included in FIFA 11, the psychedelic pop jam is catchy as hell and also made its way onto Grand Theft Auto, too. The perfect song to soundtrack either robbing a car or signing Andres Iniesta for Ipswich Town.
Watch ONE on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
59. Avelino, Stormzy & Skepta - Energy (FIFA 18)
The signature song of FIFA 18, the extremely assured hip-hop track was a confident choice for a series that was by now long-established as the king of football games.
Part of the requirement of top-drawer menu music is a recognisable opening, and Energy certainly provides that with a slow-burning percussive but drumless opening that then explodes – after a bar or two of a capella rapping – into an irresistible drop. That’s how you make a modern FIFA song.
Watch Energy on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
58. Peggy Gou - It Makes You Forget (Itgehane) (FIFA 19)
It Makes You Forget (Itgehane) is a slice of serene disco that’s both catchy and relatively untapped in the mainstream. “Probably the only thing that calms me down after conceding another bicycle kick goal in FIFA 19,” says one YouTube comment on the official video to this song. It’s got 1,700 likes. Perhaps everyone relates.
Watch It Makes You Forget (Itgehane) on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
57. The Strokes - Machu Picchu (FIFA 12)
Bless them, The Strokes will always be an early 00s band to all of us… but their big comeback in 2011 nonetheless captured the attention for a spell, even if the new album, Angles, struggled to live up to the hype.
The shredded guitar and electronic bloops that mark out the melody sound a lot more like Julian Casablancas’ mid-hiatus solo work than it does like a traditional Strokes song, but that Nikolai Fraiture bassline tethers it to the band’s earlier catalogue. The FIFA soundtrack should reflect the time each incarnation came out, and what better way to do that in 2011 than by reminding us that nobody at the time seemed quite sure how to move on from the distinct sound of the previous decade?
Watch Machu Picchu on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
56. Fred again.. - Adore u (EA FC 24)
Fred again.. has enjoyed a rapid rise akin to Lamine Yamal in recent years, becoming a festival superstar and chart botherer – and Adore u is not just his catchiest effort, it's the one that's cut through with the FIFA crowd. It's iconic these days – though once someone tells you that the vocal sounds a bit like Winnie the Pooh, you'll never unhear it.
Watch Adore u on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
55. The Automatic - Monster (FIFA 08)
While some songs slither onto the FIFA jukebox simply on the basis of being super-cool, others make their way there through sounding worthy of being a stadium chant. Monster, by Welsh rockers, The Automatic, is the latter: a melodramatic tale of psychedelic drug use and scary late nights, Monster was one of the more memorable tracks from FIFA 08.
“You get labelled ‘one hit wonder’, it's not like we've disappeared without a trace,” Robin Hawkins of the band claimed. “We've got a second album coming out, which in my opinion is full of much better songs.” The Automatic are yet to have another hit. But what a hit it was.
Watch Monster on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
54. Foster the People - Call It What You Want (FIFA 12)
Foster the People frontman Mark Foster used to write radio jingles. Hence why he had a knack for getting a song stuck in your head. Call It What You Want was just that – one of the catchier tracks on FIFA 12 but not as overplayed as the Californian act’s biggest hit, Pumped Up Kicks.
Watch Call It What You Want on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
53. Black Keys - Tighten Up (FIFA 11)
Seven albums in, The Black Keys suddenly stumbled upon popularity with their Brothers record, catapulting them into a (sort of) mainstream light. Tighten Up was a gloriously soulful, guitar-spangling song that married two of EA’s favourite genres into something typically FIFA. It still pops today.
Watch Tighten Up on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
52. Matt and Kim - Daylight (Troublemaker remix) (FIFA 10)
Remixes became a big part of FIFA in the 2010s, and this was one of the first to be included, as Troublemaker's mix on Daylight gave the original track a euphoric backing of synth horns. It's the ultimate anthem for anyone who's got lost in this game, with the lyrics asserting that, “in the daylight, I don't pick up my phone”. Whew. We feel seen.
Watch Daylight on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
51. Caribou - Odessa (FIFA 11)
Another of those songs that you’ll probably know even if you’ve not dipped into Caribou’s catalogue of albums – though you really should, because they’re very good.
Odessa captures what the solo artist is all about, offering a 21st-century electronic interpretation of steel drums and maracas to brilliant effect. You can feel the Caribbean sun on your neck just listening to it.
