The Toe Poke Daily is here every day to bring you all the weirdest stories, quirkiest viral content and top trolling that the internet has to offer, all in one place.
- How have Prem-winning captains fared as managers?
- We need to talk about these awful warm-up kits
- Firmino's stunning tattoo marks summer of success
The battle between football's two major console games always rages at this time of year.
As usual, EA Sports brought out the big guns and picked a cover star for its two versions last week. Virgin van Dijk (Champions Edition) and Eden Hazard (Standard Edition) take pride of place on the front of the box.
Konami, however, have opted to pick four players for the front cover of PES2020.
😍🔥😍🔥
— eFootball PES (@officialpes) July 30, 2019
Here it is! The OFFICIAL reveal of our Global cover for #eFootballPES2020, which launches on September 10th! pic.twitter.com/er682J68ku
It all starts at the very top of the game, with Lionel Messi front and centre. But the Barcelona superstar is joined by three other players, notably Scott McTominay of Manchester United.
While Messi has over 600 goals, 10 La Liga titles, four Champions Leagues and five Ballon d'Ors to his name, McTominay made 16 league appearances for Manchester United last season, seven of which came off the bench.
Elsewhere, Serge Gnabry of Bayern Munich and Miralem Pjanic of Juventus make up the slightly odd quartet. Perhaps most of the money was spent securing the boy Messi?
The one, the only, Zizou 🤩 🙌 On the cover of the #FIFA20 Ultimate Edition and in #FUT20 as an ICON 💪
— EA SPORTS FIFA (@EASPORTSFIFA) July 30, 2019
Pre-Order the Ultimate Edition by August 5 to get a guaranteed #OTW player -> https://t.co/kNhJMf0Pmv pic.twitter.com/DNbkzNQxHT
Within hours, EA Sports announced that Zinedine Zidane would be the cover star of the Ultimate Edition of FIFA 2020. Ouch.
Liverpool try to trademark "Allez Allez Allez"
Liverpool caused a bit of a stir up on Merseyside this week when it emerged they had attempted to trademark the word "Liverpool" with the Intellectual Property Office.
A Liverpool spokesman told the iPaper that this would only relate "to the context of football products and services," something which immediately irked ambitious non-league club City of Liverpool who had to spend £300 launching a legal challenge to the application. Good on Liverpool FC, though, who gave assurances there were be no action and refunded that £300 to them.
But the iPaper also says that Liverpool attempted to trademark "Allez Allez Allez," a chant adopted by Liverpool during their run to the Champions League final two years ago but is believed to have started at FC Porto. Liverpool withdraw the application in November.
Liverpool also wanted to register "6 times" in homage to the number of times the club has won the European Cup.