It was widely tipped that EA Sports would be regaining the official licence for Italian giants Juventus for FIFA 23, and the theories (and leaks) were absolutely right – The Old Lady returns in FIFA 23.
Many moons ago, Juventus was one of the first big licensing scalps that Konami took from EA for Pro Evolution Soccer, which is now of course rebranded to be eFootball. Konami announced earlier this year that its agreement with Juve was expiring and wouldn’t be renewed, with many quite rightly jumping to the conclusion that Juventus would partner up with EA once again for the FIFA 23 release date. The new “multi-year” partnership will see the iconic club stick around not only for FIFA 23, but for at least a few entries in the EA Sports FC era too.
EA originally lost the licence prior to FIFA 20, and ever since the release of that game Juventus has been known as Piemonte Calcio in the game. While it was at first jarring, fans have come to know and love FIFA’s alternative brand for the Italian club, but now it’ll be laid to rest – that is at least until there’s another bidding war for Juve’s rights…
Despite EA regaining the licence to such a big club, Konami still retains the rights to several other Serie A teams, and is continuing to add more as well. The likes of AS Roma and Atalanta will continue to be eFootball exclusives, and Konami recently revealed that it had got the exclusive licence for newly-promoted AS Monza too.
Despite the ongoing licence war with Italian football clubs, FIFA continues to be pretty much unrivalled in terms of the league and club licences it has.
For now though, let’s all light a candle for Piemonte Calcio – a more than capable substitute for the mighty Juve while it was gone.