PES 2021 news: Ronaldo, Messi and Rashford revealed as cover stars with new season features announced
PES 2021 unites Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi for the first time on a game cover – find out the news features and pre-order yours now
Konami have released the cover for eFootball PES 2021 – the latest edition of Pro Evolution Soccer – and it's a star-studded affair, featuring Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Marcus Rashford and new Champions League-winner Alphonso Davies.
PES won't have a full version this season unfortunately, due to difficulties presented by COVID-19. Instead, Konami are releasing a full update to the current instalment for the 2020/21 season – including new kits, player updates, and new features as the game celebrates its 25th anniversary.
Pre-order PES 2021 for PS4 or XBox One now for £24.99
Juventus's Cristiano Ronaldo is the latest star to be named as an official eFootball PES ambassador. The Portuguese forward will feature in a range of promotional activities over the course of the year, according to Konami.
Lionel Messi – who's now on his sixth cover – lines up next to his nemesis, and it has to be said: we're quite hoping that some of the "promotional activities" suggested include both Leo and Cris together.
Also squeezed onto the cover, England and Manchester United hero Marcus Rashford – who's transcended his considerable football talent this year with his charitable campaigns – and recent Champions League winner Alphonso Davies of Bayern Munich. It's pretty cool that despite the two biggest stars in football over the past 20 years making it onto PES's cover, Konami still have time for two younger talents set to define the 2020s.
All four ambassadors are set to feature in the brand-new Club Editions for eFootball PES 2021 season update. This is a cheaper-than-usual RRP of £24.99; each Club Edition includes one Iconic Moment Series player, full myClub squad and much more.
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For existing PES 2020 or PES 2020 LITE users, you can pre-order a Club Edition through either game to receive a 20% discount.
One of the big reasons for the reduced update this season is due to the 2022 version of the game set to be even bigger and better.
Currnntly, the development team at Konami are working on eFootball PES 2022. This will see the Fox Engine - which currently runs PES - replaced by Unreal Engine 5 on its ninth-generation versions. Essentially, that just means it's going to look hella super cool on the PS5 and Xbox Series X.
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