Cristiano Ronaldo joined by rival Lionel Messi and 5 other footballers as top-rated players in brand new UFL game

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are set to be the top-rated players in the UFL, a free-to-play football video game. The likes of Jude Bellingham, Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland, Vinicius Jr and Kylian Mbappe will be rated the same as Ronaldo and Messi.

As per a report by SPORTbible, the two GOATs of modern football are rated at 91 in the game that is set to be launched soon. The Argentine's rating is one higher while Ronaldo's is five more than in the popular EA FC 24 game.

De Bruyne, Haaland and Mbappe have been rated the same in both games, while Bellingham sees an increase of five in the EFL. Vinicius Jr is rated two points higher in the UFL as compared to EA FC 24.

While Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have a 91 rating, 10 other players are rated at 90. Frenkie de Jong, Kai Havertz, Harry Kane, Laurato Martinez, Cole Palmer, Declan Rice, Rodri, Bukayo Saka, Federico Valverde and Martin Odegaard are the players who have been given the second-highest rating.

Why did Cristiano Ronaldo invest in UFL?

UFL's Cyprus headquarters CEO Eugene Nashilov claimed Cristiano Ronaldo was hurt by EA's decision to drop him as their cover player back in 2019. The former Real Madrid and Manchester United star has invested in the upcoming game.

He told SPORTbible:

"He was the face of EA's game for some time, but they did have a quarrel with him in 2019 and they did what they did, they removed him from the cover. That was 100 per cent painful for him, because in the long run, he had the court case which he won, meaning he was innocent."

Nashilov added:

"I'm sure in a financial competition with EA they could have offered him more than what we have, although our deal is not the smallest one I have to stress. On the other hand at the time there was KONAMI, who had [Lionel] Messi as the cover star so Ronaldo could have been out of the world of digital football but we popped up at the right time."

He continued:

"When Cristiano joined us as an investor he had already been an ambassador for some time. There are big gaming publishers in the consortium that guarantee we can deliver for him, with all of these combined as well as our great relationship it worked out well. The 'fair to play' aspect really stuck out to him with the game being free to play. We can ensure that this will always remain the case. He felt like there is a certain chance that these guys will deliver what they say so that really affected his decision-making."

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were previously EA Sports FIFA cover stars but did not make the cover in the last couple of seasons. The EA Sports' game has now rebranded to EA FC after ending their partnership with FIFA.