After three years as the face of EA Sports' FIFA series, Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappe will reportedly not feature as the EA Sports FC 24 cover star.
EA Sports FC is the brand-new football series being released by EA Sports, replacing its long-running FIFA series after the publisher and FIFA split following a 30-year partnership. The first instalment of EA's new series will be EA FC 24, with the game to be released later this year.
The last few days have seen a handful of leaks regarding EA FC 24 start to surface ahead of any official announcements, including the official logo and name of the title, and the latest leak has reportedly revealed that a brand-new cover star will replace Mbappe as the face of EA FC 24.
EA FC 24 cover star leaked – a new face to mark a new era
Since FIFA 21, PSG striker Mbappe has been the face of EA's FIFA series, appearing on the cover three years in a row, with the Frenchman sharing the cover in FIFA 23 with Chelsea women's striker Sam Kerr. But, according to extremely reliable leaker @billbil_kun on Twitter, Mbappe won't appear on the cover of the Standard Edition of EA FC 24.
Instead, a new player will be supposedly making their debut on the cover, Manchester City and Norwegian striker Erling Haaland. The 22-year-old had a ludicrous campaign during the 2022/23 season, scoring 52 goals in 53 games for City, helping his side win the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup whilst breaking multiple goal scoring records along the way.
And according to the leaker, Haaland will appear as the solo cover star on the Standard Editon of EA FC 24, with the image of the striker lining up a shot in a Champions League game with one arm in the air. Along with the Standard Edition, the leaker also confirmed Haaland would appear front and centre of the EA FC 24 Ultimate Edition, but not by himself.
The Ultimate Edition is set to feature a whopping 31 players in total on the cover, with a mix of men and women players filling the space behind the City striker. Unlike Haaland's image which is taken from a real game, the 30 other players will appear as their characters from EA FC 24, with the likes of Vinicius Jr, Son Heung-min, Sam Kerr, Zinedine Zidane, Johan Cruyff and Pele all reportedly featuring on the Ultimate Edition cover.
From EA's perspective, these leaks are far from ideal. It appears all of its big EA FC 24 plans are being announced by leakers before they can, which is sure to take away a lot of the excitement from its reveal.
