Last week, EA Sports announced Brazilian footballer Kaká as the global cover athlete for FIFA 11, and noted that 17 other soccer stars would join him in specific regions. Today, EA has revealed the North American cover athletes for the game: Carlos Vela (of Arsenal F.C. and the Mexico national football team), and Landon Donovan (of Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy and the US Men's National Team). You can check out the full PS3 box art in the gallery below.
Donovan single-handedly awakened American interest in soccer with his stellar performance in this summer's World Cup, including a thrilling, stoppage-time, Group-C-winning goal against Algeria that has gone down as the best moment in US men's international soccer thus far. (Aside: Watch this video of the world's reaction to Donovan's goal. I dare you not to get chills or have tears well up in your eyes. It's beautiful.) This marks Donovan's third appearance on the cover of a FIFA Soccer game; he was also on the North American boxes of FIFA Soccer 2003 and FIFA Soccer 07.
Putting Donovan on the box is a smart move by EA -- Americans have already stopped caring about soccer, but those who watched the World Cup won't soon forget Donovan's heroics, and they'll hopefully be reminded of his goals when they see him on the box for FIFA 11 when it launches on September 28th in North America for PS3, 360, Wii, PC, PSP, PS2, DS, and mobile platforms. (The game will launch on October 1st in Europe and Asia.)
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Samit Sarkar is a founding Destructoid editor and go-to Sports guy. Samit was the son of the Duke of Knees, rescued from a burning village in the afghan desert by a golden condor. He is an ace Backgammon player and lost both legs in a whaling tour. He lives for free in a nursery in Scotland where he teaches monks how to capture butterflies without hurting them.
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Contest:
5:20 PM on 08.11.2010 | 
Actually (correct me if I'm mistaken) but in Mexico, Soccer is Futbol (or Football, whatever.) So it would be called the Mexico National Football Team. Looks like he's done his research 8-)
Personally I would say this is your greatest moment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYFl6oOad3E
But I'm a Scottish.
I would also have put Brad Friedel on the box, fucking legend.
Say what you want about Donovan (and there's plenty to say), but he's the most recognizable US player in terms of the mass market.
Still gonna get this, really don't care about the cover. I'm gonna destroy kids online.
As a Gooner, I can confirm that I am pleased that my man Vela is on the front. Kaka looks too skinny.
WHY NO MENTION OF KAKA?