FIFA 20 Cover Athlete Reveals: Eden Hazard, Virgil van Dijk to Appear on Different Game Covers
Over the past several weeks, EA Sports has been busy promoting the various gameplay features of FIFA 20. Fans have seen a few trailers showing off some of the aspects game. The release date and prices were revealed, but EA had yet to reveal the official cover stars for the game. As of Friday, the wait is over as Eden Hazard and Virgil Van Dijk will appear as the FIFA 20 cover athlete for different editions of the game.
FIFA 20 Cover Athlete: Eden Hazard on Standard, Virgil van Dijk on Champions Edition
Two of the FIFA 20 cover stars are now official, as EA Sports showed off the front of the Standard Edition and Champions Edition. Real Madrid midfielder Eden Hazard will appear on the FIFA 20 Standard Edition of the game, which is the regular-priced game. Liverpool defender Virgil Van Dijk will appropriately grace the front of the Champions Edition of the game.
EA tweeted out images to show each of these covers, but teased a third cover star is also on the way.
Hazard made headlines with his decision to leave the Premier League’s Chelsea in favor of La Liga’s Real Madrid. Van Dijk gained prominence by winning Premier League Player of the Year in his first full season with Liverpool. He also helped the team win the Champions League Final this past season and received Man of Match honors.
Both players seem to be elated at being selected as FIFA 20 cover stars, based on their recent tweets. Hazard tweeted about it shortly after the big announcement arrived. He mentioned being “back” on the front of the FIFA game’s cover, which is true. Hazard was on the cover of EA’s FIFA 15 as one of the several cover stars from other countries representing the game. He was on the cover for his native country of Belgium along with the UK, Ireland, and Netherlands.
Van Dijk is coming off his first full season with Liverpool. He won the season’s Premier League Player of the Year award and also Man of the Match in his team’s Champions League Final victory.
The FPA Player of the Year Van Dijk also posted on Twitter around the same time as Hazard calling it a “dream come true” and an honor to represent the Liverpool football club. Van Dijk posted a number of images showing himself posing with an image of the new Champions Edition cover bearing his face.
New cover stars replace Ronaldo, Neymar
For FIFA 19, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar appeared on the game covers. Ronaldo appeared as the “World” cover star for the game. He and Neymar appeared together on the Champions Edition (see below). Ronaldo also was the face on the front of the game for FIFA 18. It’s still possible, Neymar could show up on the Champions cover with other PSG stars.
The new FIFA 20 cover stars arrive shortly after news that EA’s multiyear partnership with Juventus football club ended, bringing a fictional team into the game. That team, named Piemonte Calcio, will still have the real players from Juventus including superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.
Due to the partnership ending, it wouldn’t make sense to use their players as a FIFA 20 cover athlete to promote the game. There’s also the fact they wouldn’t be able to appear on the cover in an official Juventus uniform.
That said, the new FIFA 20 cover athlete choices are both good choices as popular stars in the international football world. It’s going to be interesting to see which player(s) EA Sports reveals as the Ultimate Edition’s cover star. Early guesses might be someone from Team France such as Kylian Mbappe or Paul Pogba, or a PSG player, perhaps? Lionel Messi is always a popular choice as well.
FIFA 20 will be available for PS4, Xbox One, PC (Origin), and Nintendo Switch (Legacy Edition) on September 27. Champions and Ultimate Editions of the game arrive three days earlier on pre-order. There’s also earlier trial access on September 19 through EA Access (Xbox One, PS4) or Origin Premier Access (PC) subscription.
See more of our FIFA 20 news ahead of the new game’s release.