From featuring in FIFA as a Philadelphia Union player, Warren Creavalle’s new venture, Design FC, will now be showcased in the popular video game.
Founded by Creavalle and Omri Gal, Design FC is an after school program based in Chester — the Union’s home base — which encourages elementary and middle school students to develop creative thinking, self expression and autobiographical storytelling through the design of soccer jerseys.
Each student designs a jersey unique to them, which tells their story of family, community, future aspirations and the social issues that affect them most.
Two of the seventh-grade students — Nyrell Hackett and Kevin Standford — will see their efforts rewarded in a big way as their jersey designs will be released in EA SPORTS FIFA Ultimate Team for all FIFA players to use. The game will also feature a Design FC stadium with virtual signage, tifos and more.
"It felt relieving that I could finally take everything that I had built up deep down inside and let it all out on a jersey," Stanford said of his Black Lives Matter-inspired jersey. "It felt like it all came out at once and it felt like I didn't have so much built up on my back anymore. I didn't have to carry this much anger on me anymore. But yeah, that is just a little bit of anger that came out of me, got much more but that's just one part that came out and it felt great."
"When I was six, I've had this feeling where I didn't feel anything. Didn't feel any hurt, no feelings, no nothing. So I had to put 'NUMB' on [my jersey] because it still happens to this day," Hackett said when describing his jersey design. "And I don't think it's ever going to stop. I guess you can say I wasn't numb when I was talking about it, but I was expressing how I felt. So when I saw [NUMB] on that jersey, I knew that I accomplished something. I can't be scared to talk about it. And that's one thing I learned in DFC."
