An ode to the original Pro Evolution Soccer Master League XI & your wasted youth
Growing up as a gamer and football fan in the 2000s there were really only two types of people: FIFA fans and Pro Evolution Soccer gamers.
And while FIFA had the official kits, familiar player names and fully-licensed teams, Pro Evolution Soccer – known colloquially as PES or Pro Evo – was the superior gaming experience, even if you were playing as Middlebrook or the Merseyside Reds.
Many an hour/day was lost to Konami’s flagship football sim, often in the company of friends from school, and later university, locked in seemingly endless cycles of “winner stays on” matches.