All the fake logos designed by Konami for the Premier League

It is impossible to deny that part of the appeal of PES, which since last year has been renamed eFootball in its free-to-play version, has always been its somewhat cheap aesthetic, bordering on the fake, whose apotheosis was the names and fake logos of teams whose commercial rights they did not own being mispronounced to the hilt. Whoever is a veteran of the game and has always preferred it to the competitor of a lifetime made by EA Sports, will remember that in PES 2002 you could play Aragon (Manchester United) against Europort (Liverpool) played at the Red Cauldron (Anfield), Lombardy (Milan) against AS Abruzzi (Rome) in the prestigious Longobardi Colosseum (San Siro) to name but a few examples. Another gem are the names of the various football legends: Nirasaki (Nakata) Malgani (Maradona), Lon Barron (Roberto Baggio) who have never granted their naming rights to the Japanese video game.

Not only in PES 2002, as we said, mispronounced names and logos have always been the protagonists and also this year in Serie A before and in the Premier League the designers and creatives of eFootball made us quite amused. The video game published by Konami in England has bought the rights of only two teams: Arsenal and Manchester United. All other teams and the visual identity of the league belong to FIFA, which has been in partnership with the Premier League for several years. 

From a legal point of view, this is a brilliant idea that allows Konami to carve out its slice of the market year after year and slowly acquire licences, without giving up that strange aesthetic that has become a cult thanks to the career team and the great attack duo Minanda-Castolo. So if you find yourself in front of the sofa with your friend ready to start the game and challenge you, know that you will find yourself in front of teams that you may not know. The logos for obvious reasons can not be similar or have any common elements to the original ones, while for the names the matter is totally opposite, the game uses the name of each city to which - in most cases - at the end are added the initials RB.

However, some of the most recognisable elements remain in the logos, such as Chelsea's Lion, the Hammers' swords, Newcastle's stronghold and Southampton's famous ship. Others are totally different from the originals, such as Manchester City's strange horse, never seen or used in the club's history. Despite the fact that the eFootball 2022 revolution isn't quite there yet, given the initial problems that forced Konami to refund all those who had purchased subscriptions, you can still console yourself with its strange and offbeat aesthetic.