FIFA Soccer 97

FIFA 97 (also known as FIFA Soccer 97) is a video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts based on the game of football (soccer). It was released for the PC on June 24, 1996 and versions for PlayStation, SNES, Mega Drive and Sega Saturn followed.

FIFA 97 was the fourth game in the FIFA Series and the second to use the Virtual Stadium engine. Unlike the first game to use the engine, FIFA 97 features polygonal players as opposed to the 2D sprites used in FIFA Soccer ’96. The engine however received complaints for being sluggish in the PC and PlayStation versions.

David Ginola (then a Newcastle United player) graced the cover of the game in the European market. He also was used for motion capture for the polygonal models in the game. Bebeto (the Brazilian striker) was featured on the cover for the Americas and Asia-Pacific markets.