After his breakout year with Barcelona and Spain, 17-year-old Lamine Yamal has joined eFootball as one of Konami's brand ambassadors for the game. Over the last 18 months, Yamal has quickly established himself as one of the most exciting talents in world football, with the Spaniard taking the footballing world by storm at such a young age. At just 15, Yamal made his Blaugrana debut, and since then, he's gone on to become a regular for both Barcelona and Spain, winning the 2024 Golden Boy award and also being named Young Player of the Year for Euro 2024 and the La Liga 2023/24 campaign.
The hype surrounding Yamal is huge, both on and off the pitch. He quickly became one of the world's most popular players, but due to him being so young, he wasn't available to use in EA FC 24, with the Spaniard making his EA Sports FC debut in EA FC 25. With so much hype surrounding his name, Yamal was one of the favourites to potentially be the EA FC 26 cover star, but it looks like that plan is out the window after Yamal pledged his loyalty to Konami's eFootball series.
eFootball, formerly known as Pro Evolution Soccer (PES), is a free-to-play football game that competes with EA Sports FC and UFL in the football gaming scene, with over 800 million downloads worldwide to date. Konami made its football game free-to-play in 2021, but despite not being as popular as it used to be, it still manages to draw in some of football's biggest names.
Yamal joins former Barcelona legends such as Lionel Messi, Neymar Jr and Luis Suarez as the faces of eFootball, while major clubs like Manchester United, Arsenal, Milan, Inter, and Bayern Munich are all partners of the game. With Yamal’s inclusion, eFootball has introduced new in-game content, including exclusive players with the brand-new "Acceleration Burst" skill. The players are Epic Yamal, Big Time Neymar, and Epic Takefusa Kubo. To celebrate Yamal joining the eFootball team, Konami is also launching the Carnival Campaign, where players can earn free eFootball coins and exclusive in-game rewards.
Being an ambassador of a game like eFootball at just 17 years old shows just how good Yamal is, though it's definitely a blow for EA Sports because a name like Yamal could've been perfect for the EA Sports FC cover in the future. The latest console and PC gaming news and reviews.
