Inter Milan has signed an exclusive partnership deal with Konami and eFootball, running the entirety of the 2022/2023 season, which means the Italian giant won’t officially feature in FIFA 2024 – or anywhere else for that matter – for at least another year, and potentially beyond.
Announced via Twitter, Konami now has exclusive kit, stadium, and logo rights for Inter Milan, for use in eFootball. The team – comprising names like Martinez, Barella and, um, possibly Lukaku again – joins eFootball’s modest but star-studded exclusivity roster, which also features Manchester United, Bayern Munich, and Arsenal.
Inter also issued a statement, stating that the eFootball logo would be used on various Inter kits for the “2022/2023 season and beyond”, suggesting that the partnership may last longer than the coming year.
Disappointingly, however (at least for eFootball fans), Konami recently announced that it was ending its partnership with Juventus, the other dominant force, and one of Inter’s rivals, in Italy’s Serie A. Juventus’ kit and other official imagery will remain eFootball’s 2022 version, but will likely be removed in the next annual update.
Signing Inter Milan is potentially an effort by Konami to replace Juventus as its key, licensed, Italian team. As part of the partnership deal, Konami has also gained the rights to display the eFootball logo on the reverse of both the Inter men’s and women’s trainings kits, and has the privilege of temporarily rebranding Inter’s training ground – the Konami Youth Development Centre in Memory of Giacinto Facchetti is named for the legendary Italian left-back, who died in 2006.
Konami and the club will also “work in tandem” on “domestic and international projects within the eSports world”, though details on these are yet to be revealed.
“FC Internazionale Milano and Konami are thrilled to announce that an exclusive multi-year agreement has been reached, which will see the gaming market leader become the club’s global football videogame partner, youth development centre partner and training kit back partner,” says Inter Milan, in an official statement. Konami will work in tandem with the club on domestic and international projects within the eSports world, which will be revealed over the course of the campaign.”