FIFA 20 Cover Star: Zinedine Zidane joins, Eden Hazard and Virgil van Dijk as FIFA cover stars in battle against PES 2020

FIFA 20 Cover Stars have been revealed – with Zinedine Zidane the latest icon to front this year’s game.

The Frenchman, currently coaching Real Madrid, is the cover star on the Ultimate Edition of FIFA 20.

Earlier this week, it was revealed that Eden Hazard will be the face of FIFA 20 Standard Edition and Virgil van Dijk will be featured on the Champions Edition.

There was originally a leak doing the rounds to suggest Neymar would be the FIFA 20 cover star.

The Brazilian was part of the trio that displaced Cristiano Ronaldo halfway through FIFA 19’s release, alongside Kevin De Bruyne and Paulo Dybala, and given how marketable he is, it is understandable he is the front runner once again.

After being reached out to for a comment by Hardcore Gamer, EA responded “The images that have recently surfaced are not the FIFA 20 cover”. So any Neymar or PSG fans out there shouldn’t get their hopes up just yet. 

One recent poll conducted by Fifplay has Neymar and Son Heung-min in a heated race against one another with around 300,000 votes each out of 1.8 million. Cristiano Ronaldo is not too far behind but having been on the cover for the past two years, but after his rape allegations, EA have understandably distanced themselves from the five-time Ballon d’Or winner.

Did anyone really fall for this FIFA 20 Neymar cover star ‘leak’?
READ MORE: All you need to know about FIFA 20

Full cover star poll top 10

Neymar – 16%

Son Heung-min – 16%

Cristiano Ronaldo – 15%

Lionel Messi – 15%

Mohamed Salah – 9%

Thomas Müller – 9%

Wu Lei – 4%

Kylian Mbappe – 3%

Paul Pogba – 3%

Javier Hernandez – 2%

Why Neymar is in jeopardy

So Neymar, one of the world’s finest players, is the favourite to be on the FIFA 20 cover. That said, there are a few reasons why the Brazilian won’t be on the front. First up, Cristiano Ronaldo is not the only footballer to be up against rape allegations, with Neymar facing similar problems. It would be a serious own goal for EA to go for another player who is in hot water off the pitch.

Could Neymar follow Cristiano Ronaldo and be dumped from the FIFA franchise? Not only that, it is possible that Neymar will no longer be a PSG player come the end of the season. This may not sound like a huge deal, but if he returns to Barcelona, his most likely destination, that is likely to rule out any chance of him being on the FIFA 20 cover. Why? Well, Barca have just renewed their partnership with Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer, with Lionel Messi (who has been on the cover of both PES & FIFA before) the main man on PES 2020. The chances of any Barcelona therefore being on the FIFA cover are out the window.

READ MORE: All you need to know about PES 2020

Could we see the first female cover star?

A petition on Change.Org was launched to make USA forward Megan Rapinoe the new face of EA’s FIFA series. She won the Golden Boot and Golden Ball for her sensational performance in this years Women’s World Cup and garnered a great deal of attention for her unfiltered opinions on President Trump.

Darren Holland who started the petition had this to say:

“I’m a regular player of EA’s FIFA series. They are the best selling sports games ever, with over 250 million sales over the years. To put Megan Rapinoe on the next cover would send a clear message that the world of football is starting to give the women’s game a fair chance.

Rapinoe is not just a great player and a star at this World Cup, she has also become a role model for girls and boys all over the world for standing up to oppression off the pitch.”

When does FIFA 20 release?

EA Sports are very consistent with their release dates, and once again the final Friday in September will mark the full release of FIFA 20. This year, that will be Friday, 27 September 2019, but we can expect types of early access too.

Those who sign up to EA Access get eight hours of gameplay around one week before the game comes out (from 21 September), and those who pre-order the lucrative versions (Ultimate or Champions Edition) of the game can jump the queues and start playing three days before official release. That would be on Tuesday, 24 September 2019.

Demo Release

The demo is the first many will get to try out the new game, and after plenty of teething issues with FIFA 19, this year the demo is more crucial than ever. With fans starting to put down their controllers in the FIFA series, it is vital that even the demo for FIFA 20 is a hit.

Jadon Sancho could be an outside bet for the FIFA 20 cover after featuring in the first trailerThe demo for the game only tends to come out two weeks before the game’s full release, so this should be on September 12, 2019.

READ MORE: All you need to know about the FIFA 20 Demo

Anything else you need to know? 

The Standard Edition of the game costs £54.99 on PC and £59.99 on PS4 and Xbox One. By pre-ordering you will receive up to three FIFA 20 Ultimate Team rare gold packs (one per week for three weeks), choose one of five mid-version ICON items for five FUT matches and special Edition FUT Kits.

Remember, you can read more about the new game in our huge FIFA 20 explainer.

Oh, and you can find more about the Gamescom 2019 schedule here.

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