There was a bit of shock in the FIFA gaming community when it emerged that Juventus would not be included in FIFA 20, but that they would be in eFootball Pro Evolution Soccer 2020.Goal investigates whether the Serie A giants will return to the next edition of EA Sports’ popular football game
It was a major coup for Konami to secure such a deal, one which deprived their rival brand of the biggest club in Italy – a club that had also just recently signed one of the biggest stars in football, Cristiano Ronaldo.
“Ronaldo coming into the mix [at Juventus] adds more value to us in terms of exposure and importance,” said Konami’s Jonas Lygaard, who revealed the deal to ‘get Juventus’ was three years in the making.
So what about the next installment of FIFA: FIFA 21?
Will Juventus still be locked out of the biggest and best-selling football video game in the world? Goal takes a look at what’s in store.
Will Juventus be in FIFA 21?
Juventus will not officially be in FIFA 21.
The reason Juventus will not be in the game is the licensing agreement the Serie A club has with Konami to appear exclusively in their Pro Evolution Soccer franchise.
The deal Juve signed with Konami in 2019 will last three years, meaning the Italian champions will not officially be on a FIFA game for the next two installments at least, unless something drastically changes with the arrangement.
A club with the likeness to Juventus will be on FIFA 21, however, and it will feature all the proper players, but it won’t be able to use the club name, badge, official kits or even the Allianz Stadium.
In FIFA 20, the Juventus substitute was ‘Piemonte Calcio’ and that is set to continue in FIFA 21.
Konami also has partnership deals with clubs such as Manchester United and Bayern Munich, but they are not exclusive, meaning the clubs also appear in their official guises in EA Sports’ games.
Barcelona are another club with a wide-ranging agreement with Konami to appear on PES and, while the Spanish giants do appear on FIFA 20, their stadium – Camp Nou – was exclusive to PES 2020.
What is Piemonte Calcio?
Piemonte Calcio is the name for Juventus in EA Sports’ FIFA franchise, beginning with the 2019 game FIFA 20.
The name is inspired by the region of northern Italy on the border of Switzerland and France in which Juve are based.
Piemonte (also known as Piedmont), where Turin is, translates to ‘Foot of the Mountain’ in English, which is a fitting name for a region which is bordered by the spectacular Alps mountain range.
In Italy, it is common for the name of a club to follow the convention of region combined with the word ‘calcio’, which is Italian for football.
For example: Brescia Calcio or Cagliari Calcio, though both those clubs are generally known only by their first name.
EA Sports explained that Piemonte will be as real to Juventus as possible and playable on all modes of FIFA: “Real-world players, including authentic names and faces, will be used in the Piemonte Calcio squad throughout FIFA 20 and FIFA 20 Ultimate Team,” the company said.
However, gamers will note that the Piemonte Calcio kits are actually not very similar to Juventus’ classic Bianconeri (black and white) look.
Interestingly, it is not the first time Juventus have been dubbed Piemonte as a substitute name in a video game. In PES 2019, Juventus were known as ‘PM Black and White’, with the PM being an abbreviation of Piemonte.
Will FIFA 21 be missing any other clubs?
It is not yet clear exactly which other clubs will and will not be included in FIFA 21, but the EA Sports game is sure to have the most extensive offering of officially licensed clubs and leagues.
However, Juventus is not the only club that had to be altered in FIFA 20 due to licensing issues.
Argentina Superclasico rivals Boca Juniors and River Plate were known as ‘Buenos Aires’ and ‘Nunez’ respectively on the game until the Copa Libertadores update in March 2020.
There were a number of minor licensing issues with some international teams too, including Colombia and Uruguay, with a variation of generic kits and/or players in place in some cases.
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Source: Goal.com
