Cristiano Ronaldo is the face of the newest football video game that hopes to rival EAFC in the coming years.
It was announced in December that Ronaldo would be part of a group investing $40 million into a new video game named 'UFL', which is being developed by Strikerz Inc.
UFL will be available on release for free and has branded itself 'fair to play', meaning players will be able to build their dream football team through 'grinding the game'.
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This is in direct contrast to EAFC's Ultimate Team, where micro-transactions have allowed players to build a high-level squad without playing a match.
After rebranding from FIFA, EAFC continues to dominate the football simulation scene, with modes such as FUT, Career, and Clubs all proving extremely popular with fans.
However, with the first iteration (EAFC24) receiving a mixed reception from fans, UFL plans to take advantage and burst onto the scene with their attempt at creating the ultimate football gaming experience.
Early feedback on this year's EA launch suggests Ronaldo and the team behind UFL have a chance to make a serious splash in the football gaming space.
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There has, as yet, been no official release date for UFL after multiple delays, but SPORTbible understands it is intended for the game to be available to all before the end of the year.
You can check out footage of the new game for yourselves below.
Although his investment was announced in December 2023, Ronaldo has been the face of UFL since January 2022 when he was revealed as the game's cover star.
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With UFL being an unproven product that had initially received fairly mixed reviews, it was rather surprising to see a player of Ronaldo's stature endorse the game so heavily.
Speaking to SPORTbible at UFL's Cyprus headquarters, CEO Eugene Nashilov explained how the controversial removal of Ronaldo as the star of EA's FIFA allowed them to sign the Portuguese superstar.
"He was the face of EA's game for some time, but they did have a quarrel with him in 2019 and they did what they did, they removed him from the cover," Nashilov told SPORTbible.
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"That was 100 per cent painful for him, because in the long run, he had the court case which he won, meaning he was innocent."
Ronaldo was accused of an alleged rape in 2009. He has always denied the allegation and has never been charged, while a lawsuit in relation to the case was dismissed in 2022 by a US judge.
"I'm sure in a financial competition with EA they could have offered him more than what we have, although our deal is not the smallest one I have to stress," Nashilov continued.
"On the other hand at the time there was KONAMI, who had [Lionel] Messi as the cover star so Ronaldo could have been out of the world of digital football but we popped up at the right time."
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The huge investment made by the group fronted by Ronaldo came after he was initially signed to be the public face for the game and Nashilov revealed there have been some specific promises made to the Al Nassr star following the investment.
"When Cristiano joined us as an investor he had already been an ambassador for some time," Nashilov explained.
"There are big gaming publishers in the consortium that guarantee we can deliver for him, with all of these combined as well as our great relationship it worked out well.
"The 'fair to play' aspect really stuck out to him with the game being free to play. We can ensure that this will always remain the case.
"He felt like there is a certain chance that these guys will deliver what they say so that really affected his decision-making.
Topics: Cristiano Ronaldo, Football, Gaming, Spotlight
Tom Jenkins