EA Sports has confirmed that Chelsea’s Eden Hazard will be the cover star of FIFA 15 in the UK, France, Netherlands and Belgium.
The 23-year-old Belgium international makes his first appearance on the cover of a FIFA title and he will, of course, feature alongside four-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi.
“I have played FIFA all of my life and it’s a huge honour to be asked to be on the cover of FIFA 15,” Hazard said. “Now I have played the game I can say it’s the most realistic football game I have ever seen.”
Hazard played a crucial role under José Mourinho at Chelsea during the 2013/14 campaign, where the Belgian attacking midfielder scored 14 goals and created 7 assists. Additionally, the player featured in the PFA Team of the Year and was voted the PFA Young Player of the Year during that remarkable season.
Eden Hazard @hazardeden10 is the FIFA 15 UK cover star! #FIFA15Hazard See more: http://t.co/K0DrAEFuL8 pic.twitter.com/OFE68NuP81
— EA SPORTS FIFA (@EASPORTSFIFA) August 21, 2014
“Hazard also had a great season in FIFA 14, with our fans scoring over 52M goals with the Belgium international across all game modes,” reads the statement on EA’s official website. “His value is reflected in FIFA Ultimate Team where Hazard has been traded over 780,000 times and hit a top price of 2.5M coins in our transfer market.”
EA is preparing to take the franchise into a new direction with FIFA 15 by delivering an authentic footballing experience, with this year’s instalment featuring all 20 stadiums from the Barclays Premier League and the motion capturing of 200 different footballers, including Manchester United’s David de Gea and Everton’s Tim Howard.
“This announcement coincides with EA SPORTS new long term partnership with Chelsea Football Club as their official gaming partner that will see exciting digital and social content for fans through upcoming seasons,” EA added. “First up is this exclusive Chelsea FIFA 15 wallpaper available for desktop, tablet and mobile.”
Gonzalo Higuaín (Italy), Tim Cahill (Australia and New Zealand), Clint Dempsey (United States and Canada), David Alaba (Austria), Robert Lewandowski (Poland) and Xherdan Shaqiri (Switzerland) are all players who have been confirmed as FIFA 15 cover stars for a specific region or countries.
EA also revealed its Team of the Week for FIFA 14’s Ultimate Team mode earlier this week, which has none other than Hazard’s Chelsea team-mate Cesc Fàbregas as the highest rated player. Further details on that can be found here.
FIFA 15 is scheduled for release in late September on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo 3DS, Wii and PC.