Edgar Davids succesfully sues League of Legends for character likeness
The former Ajax and Juventus midfielder has won a court case against the gaming franchise over character 'Striker Lucian' with whom he shares a remarkable resemblance.
The character 'Striker Lucian' has long dreadlocks and wears protective glasses, two things which were synonymous with Davids during his sucessful playing career.
Riot Games the 'LoL' online multiplayer game developers of the 'LoL', maintained that the character was not based on the former Dutch midfielder. However, this defence was severely weakened in the lawsuit afer a tweet from 2014 by former Riot employee which has since deleted said: 'For all you wondering, Striker Lucian was inspired by soccer pro Edgar Davids.'
Davids then tweeted ''Thank youRT @GY4TSO @riotgames @LeagueOfLegends I think @esdavids noticed the resemblance!' before succesfully suing the gaming company.
The court decided that the character bared enough resemblance to Davids with its '-dark skin, sporting look, aggressive style, black dreadlocks and sporting goggles' and judged that Riot owed the player a compensation fee which will be decided in the next verdict.
Davids retired from professional football in 2014 having been at Barnet as player/manager in the last 18 months of his career. He previously played for clubs including Ajax, AC Milan, Tottenham, Juventus and Barcelona, played 74 times for the Dutch national team, won six league titles and one Champions League.