Zlatan Ibrahimović caused a stir with his tweets in 2020: Who has the rights to his name? Now he’s on the cover of EA FC 26.
“Who gave FIFA EA Sports permission to use my name and face? […] Time to do some research.” – With these tweets, Zlatan Ibrahimović made probably the most prominent incendiary speech against the FIFA soccer game series in the fall of 2020. Five years after the public dispute, the Swedish superstar now adorns the cover of EA FC 26.
What really happened back then
In November 2020, Ibrahimović discovers his virtual self in FIFA 21: instead of being happy about his digital presence, he makes serious accusations: he himself never granted EA Sports the rights to his name and likeness. He has never granted the relevant licenses to either FIFA or the players’ union FifPro (which bundles the image rights of many professional players for video games worldwide).
Who gave FIFA EA Sport permission to use my name and face? @FIFPro? I’m not aware to be a member of Fifpro and if I am I was put there without any real knowledge through some weird manouver.
And for sure I never allowed @FIFAcom or Fifpro to make money using me– Zlatan Ibrahimović (@Ibra_official) November 23, 2020
For Zlatan it was clear: “Someone has been making money with my name and face for years – without my consent”.
The story went viral, not least because ex-Real Madrid professional Gareth Bale also publicly questioned who was really allowed to use his image rights. Shortly afterwards, dozens of other professionals and players’ unions spoke out.
EA Sports defends itself: The necessary rights were acquired correctly via the leagues, clubs and FifPro – as has been the case for decades.
For Ibrahimović, who suddenly sees himself as a symbolic figure in the debate about individual versus collective image rights, this is little consolation: “EA Sports, your games are based on individual image rights. But you didn’t buy them from me, you didn’t buy them from AC Milan and you didn’t buy them from FifPro. So from whom then?”.
It’s a long way from the heated Twitter debates to the moment when Zlatan smiles beatifically on the cover of the Ultimate Edition of FC 26. The cover staging reflects his journey, contains many references to his ex-clubs and alludes to a well-known photo of the young Zlatan posing in front of a Ronaldo Nazário poster:
But apparently EA Sports has now reached an individual agreement with the superstar, and the new partnership is being announced with fanfare. Many already see it as a certainty that Ibra will get an icon card in Ultimate Team mode in the upcoming installment – and further appearances, for example in story mode, are definitely a possibility.