What Is the EA Sports FIFA Cover Curse? Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe, Eden Hazard, and Every Soccer Star That Fell Victim – Sportsmanor
EA Sports have recently revealed the cover for the upcoming game, EA Sports FC 24. For those who don’t know, EA has ended its partnership with FIFA, which means the game has gone through some major rebranding work. After putting an end to a nearly 30-year partnership, EA left the soccer and gaming world surprised with the latest cover.
🚨 OFFICIAL: The cover for EA Sports FC 24 ‘Ultimate Edition’. 🥵🎮 pic.twitter.com/jQJ1n5JTKX
— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) July 10, 2023
This will be the first time when there are several cover athletes on the front page of the game. Over the years, EA analyzed and chose the most popular and best-performing player from each year. However, it seems like that isn’t the case this time around. Moreover, these players who have featured on the cover, have paid a price, unfortunately.
Cristiano Ronaldo featured on the cover of FIFA 18 for the first time in his career. Surprisingly, a player of his caliber has only made it to the front page of the game only twice in his career. Whereas his rival, Lionel Messi, has been on the cover on four occasions. When FIFA 18 was released in September 2017, that was a season to remember for the Portuguese.
How has the EA Sports FIFA curse affected Kylian Mbappe and Cristiano Ronaldo?
Ronaldo led Real Madrid to their 13th UEFA Champions League title, after beating Liverpool in Kyiv, Ukraine. However, that summer, he announced his departure from the Spanish club, after a disappointing World Cup campaign. He chose to sign for Serie A giants Juventus, where he won the league title in his first season as well. But that’s where the problems between EA and Ronaldo started.
The 5x Ballon d’Or winner left for Turin in July 2018, two months before the release of FIFA 19. EA had already announced that he would be on the cover for that year as well, and they were forced to change all the promotional campaigns, with edited images of Ronaldo in a Juventus jersey. However, it didn’t end there for Ronaldo.
Cristiano Ronaldo dropped as FIFA 19 cover star as EA Sports game puts Kevin De Bruyne, Neymar and Paulo Dybala centre stage https://t.co/mTKgXqdo4D pic.twitter.com/RqpmjZ8Tpo
— Mail Sport (@MailSport) February 18, 2019
CR7 was caught in a r*pe scandal, as an American woman named Kathryn Mayorga, accused the star of r*ping her. This was damaging the reputation of EA as well, which could be understood when they chose to remove Ronaldo from the FIFA 19 cover. They switched the soccer icon with Kevin de Bruyne, Paulo Dybala, and Neymar Jr. EA said in a statement that they were promoting the world’s best soccer stars, and declined to comment on the controversy.
As for French sensation Kylian Mbappe, he’s already been on the cover of FIFA thrice, more than his idol. Mbappe has been a victim of the “curse” on multiple occasions as well. Mbappe first appeared on the front page of the game FIFA 21, when the game was released in September 2020. But just hours after he was announced as the cover star, Mbappe suffered a serious injury.
Loic Perrin caught Mbappe’s right ankle during the French Cup Final between PSG and Saint-Etienne. He was sent off for the tackle right away. Mbappe and PSG lost to Bayern in the UCL Final later that year as well.
3 IN A ROW 👑
Proud to feature on the cover again #FIFA23@EASPORTSFIFA pic.twitter.com/t71RGY7sBZ
— Kylian Mbappé (@KMbappe) July 19, 2022
That’s not all for Mbappe’s involvement in the curse. He was also on the cover of FIFA 23, which was released in September. Although he didn’t suffer a serious injury this time around, he did have his heart broken. In December 2023, France played the 2023 World Cup final against Argentina. Mbappe scored a sensational hat-trick, but couldn’t manage to help the French win.
Lionel Messi and Co. brought the golden trophy to Buenos Aires, with some credit going to Emi Martinez for his clutch penalty saves as well. This was also one of the instances where Mbappe could not just break the “curse.”
Eden Hazard and David Beckham have also fallen prey to the FIFA cover curse
The list continues to go on, surprisingly. Belgian winger Eden Hazard left Chelsea in June 2019, after a long saga of teasing the move. He bid goodbye to The Blues after helping them win the UEFA Europa League against Arsenal in Baku. He also appeared on FIFA 20’s cover, donning his white and golden Madrid jersey. However, shortly after joining the Los Blancos, Hazard suffered a hamstring injury.
Back on the cover of @EASPORTSFIFA! Not bad for a lad from a small village in Belgium! #FIFA20 #brainelecomte 💪 pic.twitter.com/RNGXlwuoxf
— Eden Hazard (@hazardeden10) July 26, 2019
It didn’t stop there for the flashy player. Hazard suffered a hairline crack in his foot, and missed 15 games for the La Liga club. His Madrid career seemed to be swamped with injuries, as Hazard managed to only play 54 games after joining on a $114 million transfer.
Former Manchester United and Real Madrid star David Beckham has also appeared on FIFA’s cover. He made it to the front page of FIFA 98, aka FIFA 98: Road to the World Cup. France took the trophy home that year, but England and Argentina faced off in the Round of 16.
When the game was tied at 2-2, after goals from Gabriel Batistuta, Alan Shearer, Michael Owen, and Javier Zanetti respectively, Beckham did the unthinkable. He kicked Diego Simeone after being pushed to the ground, all while being right in front of the referee’s eyes.
It is interesting to see that there have been many top soccer players who have fallen victim to the FIFA cover “curse”. However, all these can be taken as speculation, as there has been no evidence to prove them right. There have been players who have touched great heights after making it to the cover of the game, the most popular example being Messi.
Fans would be waiting to see if EA Sports FC 24’s cover also has some curse attached to it, which is highly unlikely. There are several top players across different leagues on the cover, which means there might not be a huge chance that all of them have a bad season at the same time next year.
