Barcelona star Lionel Messi’s four-year stint as the face of the popular best-selling game FIFA is set to come to an end as his contract with EA sports comes to an end this year. As things stand, Messi will not be on the cover of FIFA 17 with EA highly unlikely to renew the deal with the Argentine superstar. With Messi hardly in contention, reports suggest that Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy is a potential candidate to replace the four-time Ballon d'Or winner.
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Vardy, who has enjoyed a brilliant first half of the season with Leicester and broke Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record for scoring in consecutive Premier League games, is now considered by bookies as a dark horse that could be the face of the world’s most popular football game. The 28-year-old’s terrific form this term has seen him score 15 goals in the league so far and even had a pack of Walkers crisps named after him.
There were even rumours of Hollywood looking at using his story of a non-league to a Premier League superstar as a film. It would cap off a fine year for Vardy if he manages to be picked over the other contenders.
James Rodriguez and Sergio Aguero considered favorites:
Real Madrid star James Rodriguez is currently the favourite to be the next face of FIFA with Sergio Aguero of Manchester City being another front-runner after he appeared on an advert with Lionel Messi last Christmas. The other contenders from the Premier League include Tottenham striker Harry Kane and Jordan Henderson of Liverpool, who made a surprise appearance in last year’s cover after the British fans voted him over Aguero and Kane.
Messi took over from England skipper Wayne Rooney, who had featured on the cover for a consecutive seven years from 2006 to 2012, in 2012 and has been the face of the game for some time now. Despite being voted as England player of the Year by the fans, Rooney is highly unlikely to make a return to the cover of the largest selling video game franchise considering his age and form.
FIFA has sold more than a 100 million copies worldwide since it’s inception back in 1993 and some of the greatest names in world football have graced the cover including Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry and Cristiano Ronaldo.
