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Why Cristiano Ronaldo will play for a fake team in FIFA 20

When you’re looking for Juventus in FIFA 20, you’ll need to search for “Piemonte Calcio.”

The Italian giants have signed an official contract with the Pro Evolution Soccer video game franchise, meaning the team’s name, logo and uniforms won’t be appearing in EA Sports’ latest soccer game. Yes, if you want to play club soccer with Cristiano Ronaldo, you’ll have to do so with a fake team.

“Following a close relationship with Juventus Football Club, EA Sports can confirm that June 30th marked the end of its partnership with the club,” the video game maker said in a statement. “We’d like to thank everyone at Juventus for the years of collaboration as the team’s Official Sports Video Gaming partner.”

Don’t worry, Ronaldo and his new teammates like Aaron Ramsey and Adrien Rabiot will be in the game. Individual player likenesses are negotiated differently than team contracts are. Juventus’ roster will be intact when the game is released in September. It just won’t be branded as Juventus or have any of the club’s markings.

Konami’s PES has been behind the FIFA franchise when it comes to securing team licenses, so Konami clearly ponied up for Juventus in an attempt to compete more strongly with EA’s FIFA behemoth.

But will it work? That remains to be seen. It’s hard to fathom how and why longtime FIFA players would switch soccer video games — especially when EA has more team licenses — just to play with the official Juventus branding. A few Juventus fans could, of course, but a casual soccer fan who plays FIFA is more likely to suck it up and just deal with the fake Juventus team in EA’s latest edition.

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

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