Alex Morgan Joins Lionel Messi On Cover Of FIFA 16 Video Game

REDWOOD CITY (CBS/AP) -- U.S. Soccer Women's National Team member Alex Morgan will join soccer superstar Lionel Messi on the cover of EA Sports' FIFA 16 video game.

The newest edition in the popular game franchise by Redwood City-based Electronic Arts includes 12 women's national teams for the first time. That includes UC Berkeley gradutate Morgan and the U.S. team that won the Women's World Cup earlier this month.

On the Canadian version, Messi will be joined on the cover by striker Christine Sinclair.  Morgan and Sinclair become the first-ever female cover athletes to appear on an EA Sports FIFA cover.

"I know people all over the world play this game and I'm really excited that FIFA 16 is putting such an important spotlight on women's soccer," Morgan said in a statement. "And now to share the cover with today's greatest player is surreal."

Other teams represented in the game include Canada, Australia, Brazil, China, England, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain and Sweden. The women's teams compete exclusively against each other in the game.

Morgan, as well as teammates Abby Wambach, Sydney Leroux and Megan Rapinoe, traveled to Vancouver, British Columbia, earlier this year for a motion capture session. Canadian players, including Sinclair, also participated.

EA Sports also sent its mobile head-scanning unit to tournaments and matches worldwide to capture player's faces and hairstyles. The idea was to make the players and their movements as authentic to the women's game as possible.

The game will be released on September 22.

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