From Messi to Ronaldo, most of football’s greatest modern players have graced video game covers over the years. But which is the best? Well, there’s no real scientific way to decide this, so I’m pretty much going on aesthetic-based vibes completely. I’ve also pretty much stuck to the big two football series from the past few decades — FIFA/EA FC and Pro Evolution Soccer — but believe me, the temptation to stick the likes of Peter Beardsley’s International Football was certainly there. So, without further ado, let’s look at what I think are the 10 best football game covers.
Few people in the world, at least certainly in England, were as famous as David Beckham was in 1998. Part of a flourishing Manchester United team under Sir Alex Ferguson and one half of a superpower of a celebrity couple alongside the Spice Girls’ Victoria Beckham, he was an obvious choice to place on a video game cover if you wanted it to sell. A clean, white background image that features Beckham wearing number seven in the iconic England World Cup 98 kit, it looked like an even better decision by EA Sports after he curled in a free kick against Colombia in the group stages. Little did they know that his tournament would end in disaster thanks to a petulant red card against Argentina a week later. I wonder how many copies were sold after that.
FIFA 13 was the first year that saw the greatest player of all time, Lionel Messi, grace the cover of EA Sports' long-running series. Having wrestled back dominance from Pro Evolution Soccer by now, getting Messi at the peak of his powers as the poster child felt like the cherry on top of the resurgence. A lovely cover in which the Argentine’s red and blue Barcelona kit pops against the black and white backdrop, the stadium featured is, interestingly, Newcastle’s St James’ Park and not the Catalan club’s home, Camp Nou. That’s because, despite Barcelona’s most famous player being the cover star, EA had not managed to secure the license for the stadium, instead replacing it with the generic El Libertador.
The most OP player to ever exist in a football game, it was only natural that one day Adriano would find his way onto a Pro Evolution Soccer cover. The blue and black stripes of Inter work fantastically against the gold background, and you can tell by the determination on his face that he’s putting all of his legendary 99-shot power into that strike. Arguably the finest football simulation ever crafted, PES 6 featured different players alongside the Brazilian depending on where in the world you were. For example, seeing Bayern were licensed this time around, the German version saw Paraguayan striker Roque Santa Cruz stand tall, whereas the rest of Europe had to look at John Terry. Oh well.
What a beautiful man. Those long locks flowing behind him as he dazzled with the ball at his feet, slaloming through defenders as if they were poles on the side of an Alpine ski course, were some of my most formative football memories. David Ginola is featured here in the black and white stripes of Newcastle, but would soon transfer to Tottenham Hotspur, where he’d go on to win the Players’ and Writers’ footballer of the year awards for a wholly underwhelming side. Trust me, I was there. Another clean cover with the player placed front and centre, it’s a classic, and still holds up 30 years later.
The hipster's choice. Marco Reus won the public vote for who should be on the cover of FIFA 17, beating out Eden Hazard, Anthony Martial, and James Rodriguez, and what a great pick it turned out to be. The Borussia Dortmund legend in that famous kit looks incredibly slick on this one, with the yellow wall looming behind him. Nothing much more to say about this one, aside from the fact that it just looks lovely.
For many years, Rooney and Ronaldinho dominated the FIFA cover, with the former appearing on seven in a row between 06 and 12, and the latter featuring on nine in total if you include World Cup and Street spin-offs. Wayne’s debut was alongside the Brazilian Ballon d’Or winner, and stands out due to its dramatic high contrast image decorated in lashings of rain. It gives FIFA 06 a real individual feel to it compared to so many of the cleaner images against plain or monochrome backgrounds that we were used to at the time. Maybe they did go a little heavy on the exposure here, as it looks as if both players are only feet away from screaming into the sun, but it certainly made it stand out on the shelf.
That hair. Wow. Long before David Luiz or Marc Cucurella were at it, Carlos Valderrama was football’s curly king. The Colombian star donned the cover of International Superstar Soccer 98 (before the series later spun off into Pro Evolution Soccer) in North America, and I couldn’t have been any more jealous. In Europe, we got an angry-looking Paul Ince facing off against an intimidating Fabrizio Ravanelli in black and white, which is just far less appealing than the multicoloured allure of this Colombia kit and Carlos’ layers of neck and wrist accessories. Pure luxury.
No room for smiles here, just business. Three players at the peak of their powers crossed their arms and stared into our souls in 2002. Brazilian left-back and king of the banana shot, Roberto Carlos. All-action Dutch midfielder, Edgar Davis. And since disgraced Welsh winger, Ryan Giggs. It’s a strong lineup and one of the most enduring cover images of the series to date. If you were in North America, you just got Landon Donovan instead. Hardly a fair trade, is it?
One year later, EA Sports went with the triple threat approach again, but instead of being scowled at, we had three of the world’s best attackers sprinting towards us. Back in 2003, this image would have caused nightmares for any defender who would have liked nothing less than to have seen Juventus’ Alessandro Del Piero, Arsenal’s Thierry Henry, or Barcelona’s Ronaldinho running towards them with the ball. There’s a lovely balance to it. Great mix of superstars. And an eye-catching range of colours on those jerseys, too. It’s the very best FIFA has had to offer over the years, and a high the series is still chasing.
It was a bold move for Pro Evolution Soccer 3 not to feature a player on its cover, but it couldn’t have paid off any more as world-renowned referee Pierluigi Collina took centre stage. It was a curious choice for many reasons. Not only because the Italian official didn’t actually appear in the game itself, but referees weren’t even shown on the pitch at all until the following year’s edition. It’s since gone down in history as one of the most iconic football game covers, though, thanks to its sunset imagery pierced by those authoritative eyes, shiny bald head, and finished off with the man himself’s autograph. A classy touch from the big man.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.
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