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They were probably trying to avoid using 'football' or 'soccer', because the former would be misleading to some North Americans, and the latter would be off-putting for some Europeans.

The suffix FC is used by teams on both sides of the Atlantic, and should be well understood by fans of the sport.

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Konami has managed to dabble in every single one of these naming conventions by calling the same game "Pro Evolution Soccer" (US-centric), "eFootball" (US-exclusionary) and "Winning Eleven" (name of the sport completely unmentioned) depending on the market/generation of the game. One year they even had their cake and ate it too with the "eFootball Pro Evolution Soccer 2020" game.

Don't forget that Konami also had the "International Superstar Soccer Pro" games which were named "World Soccer: Winning Eleven '97" in Japan and "Goal Storm '97" in the US.

> "eFootball" (US-exclusionary)

Calling it 'football' might confuse some fans of American football, but I really doubt any American fans of 'soccer' will be confused, let alone excluded.

I don't think it would be misleading, as EA Sports has a long-running NFL franchise game called "Madden [YEAR]", named after football coach John Madden.

Cover art alone is enough to indicate the game being played. There won't ever be person with a helmet on the cover of a soccer game.

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