Konami recently revealed that Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi would appear together for the first time on the cover of a video game.
The Pro Evolution Soccer saga has become a bad omen for Barça, the club coached by Ronald Koeman. A few days after Konami unveiled the cover art for eFootball PES 2021 Season Update, history has been repeating itself. The soccer stars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo appear together in the photograph, but as happened with Neymar, the Argentine player has announced that he wants to leave FC Barcelona. All this just when the Japanese company has revealed that the footballer is one of those chosen for this year’s edition.
Neymar Jr. appeared dressed with the elastic of the culé team on the cover of PES 2018, but market movements forced the Japanese to replace him. In the image of that cover he appeared with players of the stature of Andrés Iniesta, Leo Messi or Luis Suárez (the latter is one of Koeman’s discards, as the coach has communicated). The Brazilian, who left the Barça club for his new destination, PSG, was also eliminated from the menus in the aftermath.
EFootball PES 2021 Cover
Something similar happened to Cristiano Ronaldo in FIFA 19
It is not the only case in which the cover of a football simulator has had to be modified due to the departure of one of the cracks. The goodbye of Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid, which occurred in June 2018, forced Electronic Arts to change the cover of FIFA 19. Of course, on that occasion the solution was quick and it was decided to replace the merengue club shirt with that of Juventus.
If the departure of Leo Messi materializes, something that seems almost certain, it is not clear if Konami will have to eliminate the player from the cover, since the Japanese maintain a collaboration agreement with FC Barcelona. The story will be different if the player signs with a team that maintains a license agreement with eFootball PES 2021.
As we published in AS, Messi asked Barça (via burofax) to enforce the clause in his contract that allows him to leave the Barça entity for free at the end of each season. However, the Blaugranas are convinced that the law is on their side, since the contractual document specifies that it had to be communicated before June 10, 2020. FC Barcelona considers its legend lost, but intends to get a cut with a transfer, which will not be less than that of Neymar Jr.
efootball PES 2021 Season Update will be a squad and team update to be released on PS4, Xbox One, and PC and will be released separately, not as a paid patch from last year’s version.
