Despite being in his fifties, EA Sports boss Peter Moore is apparently in rather good shape – good enough to hit the top crossbar on a soccer goal from halfway across the field, anyway.
I’m admittedly not much of a soccer fan – The Escapist is based in the States, where it’s “soccer,” deal with it! – myself, but even I can recognize that soccer fields are pretty big, and being able to kick a ball into the goal from the halfway point probably means you know what you’re doing. Being able to get enough height – and accuracy – on said punt to hit the little crossbar that connects the two sides of the goal probably means you really know what you’re doing.
Sure, professional soccer players might be able to pull it off without much of a problem, but the graying, fifty-something-year-old president of EA Sports? Even if his company does make sports games, it’s still making videogames.
Apparently, being from Liverpool gives you supernatural soccer prowess, or something. According to Videogamer, FIFA 10 producer David Ritter says his boss is “a very good footballer. I think he played semi-pro. He’s a left back or a right back. So we did the hit the Crossbar Challenge like they have on Soccer AM. Three people did it, and he hit the crossbar on his second go, from the centre.” (All Britishisms left intact}
If Wikipedia is right (and as we all know, Wikipedia is always right), the Crossbar Challenge isn’t easy to pull off, even for professionals. Still, Ritter says he’s telling the truth, adding that Moore regularly runs marathons, and that despite his age (and chosen occupation), “[h]e’s a pretty spritely old dude. He’ll love me saying that!”
FIFA 10 will be released this August, and will promptly sell out everywhere except here in the States, where it will be overshadowed by the latest Madden NFL.
