FIFA 19 has a new cover

FIFA 19 has a new cover and the former star of the cover, Cristiano Ronaldo, has been abandoned.

The star of Juventus and Portugal was the main actor of FIFA 19, appearing on the front of the box and in the main menus of the game. Here is what it looked like:

Five months after the release of FIFA 19, EA decided to give the game a new cover and replaced Ronaldo by fellow countryman Paulo Dybala, Juventus striker, Brazilian star Neymar and midfielder Maestro de Manchester City, Kevin de Bruyne. Here is what it looks like:

Entering the game itself, EA has updated the login page and the main menu to clean up Ronaldo from his virtual guts, replacing it with footage from the aforementioned trio as well as American women's football star Alex Morgan.

It's a curious decision to trigger a full-name change to FIFA 19 in the game, completely removing Ronaldo from the promotional material (we asked EA for an explanation).

A few months, however, were controversial for Ronaldo. In October 2018, EA stated that it "was closely monitoring" the situation following allegations of rape against the Portuguese. Ronaldo was charged with rape by Kathryn Mayorga, who claimed to have badaulted her in Las Vegas in 2009. Ronaldo denied the prosecution, calling it "false news".

Last month, Las Vegas police sent a warrant to Italy requesting a sample of Ronaldo's DNA.

"Mr. Ronaldo has always maintained, as he does today, that what happened in Las Vegas in 2009 was of a consensual nature, so it 's not surprising that there is no way around it. DNA is present, nor does the police make this very standard request their investigation, "Ronaldo's lawyer Peter S. Christiansen told CNN on Jan. 10.

Then, on January 22, Ronaldo reached an agreement with a Madrid court on charges of tax evasion, accepting a fine of 18.8 million euros.

The agreement provided for a 23-month prison sentence, but in Spain, convicts generally do not have the time to serve a sentence of less than two years, according to the BBC.

In an email sent to Eurogamer last October, an EA spokesman did not fail to say that the editor was considering dropping Ronaldo to the spotlight of FIFA 19, but had described the report of the German magazine Der Spiegel as "concerning".

"We have seen the disturbing report detailing the allegations against Cristiano Ronaldo, and we are watching the situation closely as we expect the athletes and the coverage ambbadadors to behave in a way that is in keeping with the values. from EA. "

At the time, FIFA fans had learned of a recent change to EA Sports' Twitter banner, which shared an image of Ronaldo against an image of the FIFA 19 logo and quotes from critics.

However, EA spokesman told Eurogamer that the company was updating its social banners for certain marketing times.