From Doncaster Rovers to eFootball 2027: Louis Tomlinson’s Football Story Comes Full Circle

Louis Tomlinson’s “Palaces” is featured on the eFootball 2027 soundtrack, but this is just the latest connection to football and gaming, with a history stretching back surprisingly far. 

Sometimes a soundtrack song just suits the mood of a game. And then there are the times where you look a little deeper and wonder if the artist has actually been heading towards that game for more than a decade.

Tomlinson’s “Palaces” appearing on the eFootball 2027 soundtrack falls firmly into the second category.

eFootball 2027

Konami has officially listed “Palaces” among the licensed music on the soundtrack for eFootball, with Tomlinson credited as both performer and one of the song’s writers. It joins the game as part of eFootball’s current 2027 era, following the major v6.0.0 New Season Update released in August 2026.

Technically, eFootball no longer works like the old annual releases. It is an evolving live-service game, although Konami’s current editions are officially branded Leo Messi Edition 2027 and Lamine Yamal Edition 2027.

Tomlinson ending up on a football-game soundtrack isn’t a surprise to anyone who knows him, and if Konami had gone looking for the most appropriate Louis Tomlinson song to put into a football game, it would have struggled to find one with a better connection than “Palaces”.

Donny Rovers

This was the second single released from Tomlinson’s third solo album, “How Did I Get Here?”, and he has spoken about the song being inspired partly by his hometown of Doncaster.

That makes its place in eFootball particularly fitting. Tomlinson, born and raised  in Doncaster, has never exactly been subtle about supporting Doncaster Rovers.

In 2013, that connection became considerably more literal when Doncaster Rovers actually signed him as a non-contract player.

Yes. Properly.

This was more than a celebrity photo opportunity. Following an appearance for the club in a charity match supporting Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice, he was actually registered with the club and given a squad number, 28. The number has stuck with Tomlinson ever since. He later had 28 tattooed on his hand, named his clothing brand 28, and has even built a habit of dropping merchandise on the 28th of the month.

Naturally, the world of video games then did what the world of video games tends to do with registered footballers. It put him in Football Manager.

Yes, The Louis Tomlinson was actually in Football Manager 2014 as a Doncaster Rovers player.
His in-game position was defender/right wing-back, his wage and transfer value were both listed at the extremely competitive price of £0, and players could genuinely encounter Louis Tomlinson while managing Doncaster. He remained in the database for Football Manager 2015 too.

That alone would make “Palaces” appearing in eFootball a very full-circle moment. But Tomlinson’s association with football, or even Doncaster Rovers, didn’t end there. 

He again teamed up with Doncaster Rovers to design their  2025/26 fourth shirt, through his clothing brand 28, to support  Club Doncaster Foundation. That wasn’t even his first venture into Rovers kit design. Back in 2016, Tomlinson and his Grandad Len won the fan vote to design Doncaster’s 2016/17 away shirt.

A Love of Football and Gaming

One of the more memorable shows of his genuine love of the game came during Glastonbury 2024, when the festival was not showing England’s Euro 2024 match. 

Most people would have accepted defeat; Louis Tomlinson bought a television.

He set up a TV and generator in the campsite, actually drawing in a crowd, to watch England eventually win 2-1 after extra time. Fitting then that Palaces,  a song Tomlinson has connected directly with both Doncaster and Glastonbury, is now featured in one of the biggest football games in the world.

Tomlinson is not simply a football fan whose song has been licensed for a football game. He is also someone who has openly talked about playing them.

Asked by Official Charts about his guiltiest pleasure, Tomlinson answered  “Video games. Always. I mostly play FIFA because I love my football. A bit of Call of Duty as well, but I’m so s**t at it.”

So somewhere between supporting Doncaster, signing for Doncaster, appearing in Football Manager, playing FIFA and releasing music, he has now reached the point where another generation of football game players can hear his own song while they play.

That is a fairly impressive circle to close, and Palaces Isn’t Louis Tomlinson’s First Video Game Soundtrack either.

“Palaces” isn’t even Tomlinson’s first solo track to find its way into a major sports game.

“Out of My System” appeared on the official NBA 2K24 soundtrack, placing his music in front of a very different sporting and gaming audience. 

I will admit upfront that I am not exactly the audience that needs introducing to Louis Tomlinson. If one of his songs appears somewhere, there is an extremely good chance I already know what it is.

Plenty of eFootball or NBA 2K players will be encountering his music from an entirely different position. More importantly, some may think they already know what to expect when they see the name Louis Tomlinson. 

How Game Soundtracks Can Find New Audiences

Being an artist who spent his formative career as one-fifth of One Direction, there will inevitably be people who see the name and assume his solo music is simply an extension of the boyband they remember. A game soundtrack can bypass that assumption completely.

For someone who might not actively choose to listen to his music, they could simply be playing basketball or football when a song comes on, and suddenly it’s: hang on, this is Louis Tomlinson?

Licensed music in games offers this unusual opportunity. It doesn’t only introduce unknown artists to new listeners. It can also take a familiar name and showcase the music actually behind it to a whole new audience.

Louis and Gaming Go Back Even Further

Tomlinson’s connection to gaming predates his solo career by a considerable margin, before One Direction had even released their first single. 

In April 2011, Nintendo announced One Direction as official brand ambassadors for Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version.

The band appeared in television adverts collecting, trading and battling Pokémon, and even performed at the games’ London launch. This was before One Direction had released their first single, meaning Tomlinson’s connection to video games predates almost his entire recording career.

One Direction songs later appeared across rhythm and music games. ‘Story of My Life’, which Tomlinson co-wrote, was released for both Dance Central Spotlight and Rock Band 4. ‘Ready to Run’, another song with Tomlinson among its writers, appeared in a One Direction song pack for Dance Central Spotlight, while ‘No Control’, again featuring Tomlinson’s songwriting, appeared in Just Dance 2016. Ubisoft even used the track in its official promotion for the game.

In other words, Louis Tomlinson-written music has been appearing in video games for more than a decade.

“Palaces” is just the latest chapter.

One Direction Even Reached the Virtual Racetrack

Gaming crossed into One Direction’s wider history in other ways too.

In 2020, the late Liam Payne took part in Formula 1’s Virtual Bahrain Grand Prix during the period when real-world racing, along with most of everyday life, had been disrupted. Driving for Williams alongside Nicholas Latifi, Payne joined professional drivers, athletes and other guests on the grid in the official F1 2019 video game. 

It is another example of how One Direction, sport and gaming have overlapped in unexpected ways over the years. 

For Louis, though, football has always been the constant.

Big sports games have spent decades mixing established names with artists that players may be hearing for the first time. So Konami adding a Louis Tomlinson song to eFootball’s soundtrack might not appear notable. 

But “Palaces” is different because of everything attached to it.

For existing fans, it is a lovely full-circle moment. For new listeners, it can challenge a very fixed idea of what music from a former member of One Direction is supposed to sound like.

For Louis Tomlinson, it just happens to have taken a route through Doncaster Rovers, Pokémon, Football Manager, basketball and back to football to get there.