PES 2021 Facepack 2026:
Updated Real Player Faces
By Pichatz Official · PC Modding Guide · 2026
Nobody asked PES 2021 to still be here. Konami certainly did not plan for it.
When they shut down the game's servers and pivoted everything into the eFootball free-to-play experiment, most people assumed that was it. The game had a shelf life and that shelf life was over. But that is not what happened. Instead, a quiet community of modders decided they were not finished with it yet. Five years of updates. Five years of option files, kit patches, and face mods. The game they said was dead is still getting new content in 2026, and the facepack we are talking about today is probably the most complete version the community has put together yet.
It covers the players properly. Not just the marquee names — the full squads. Faces rebuilt from current reference photos. Hairstyles corrected to match what these players actually look like now, not what they looked like when the game shipped. Skin textures that work properly across different lighting conditions instead of going washed-out during night matches. It is the kind of detail work that takes real time, and whoever built this clearly put that time in.
The Game Is Still Worth It — Here Is Why
People ask me sometimes why anyone would still play PES 2021 in 2026 when there are newer options. The answer is not complicated. The ball physics in this game are just better. You can feel the difference between a pass that is weighted correctly and one that is not. Headers react the way they should. Crossing into the box from a wide position feels meaningful in a way that the newer titles have been trying and failing to replicate for three years.
The other reason is hardware. PES 2021 runs cleanly on mid-range machines. If your PC is not a monster gaming rig — and most people's are not — this game gives you a stable 60 frames per second without demanding anything dramatic from your CPU. eFootball does not do that. It never has.
The weakness has always been faces. The default database was already dated when the game launched as a roster update to PES 2020. By 2026, some of these players have been through two or three clubs, changed their hairstyle multiple times, and grown from young prospects into established first-team regulars. The in-game face still shows the version from six years ago. The facepack fixes that problem completely for the players that matter most.
If you run PES 2017 alongside this — and many people do — we have a detailed facepack guide for that game too. Check out the PES 2017 Facepack 2026 — same process, same quality level, equally worth installing.
What Is Actually Inside the Pack
No vague descriptions. Just what is there.
- ▶ New face models for current first-team players across Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, and Ligue 1 — built from real 2026 reference photos
- ▶ Hairstyle geometry corrected across the board — players who changed their look significantly in the last five years are fully updated
- ▶ Goalkeeper faces included — most rushed packs skip this entirely. This one did not
- ▶ Face models for players added through community option files after 2020 — no more generic placeholder faces
- ▶ Updated skin textures with correct lighting response — night matches, day matches, and indoor environments all handled properly
Installation — Every Step
PES 2021 uses the same CPK system as PES 2017. If you have installed anything on PES 2017 before, this is identical. If this is new territory, go through each step without skipping.
Get the file from the download link on this page. Wait for it to finish completely. A CPK that downloaded to 90% is useless — it will cause either a crash on startup or invisible faces in-game. Delete any partial download and start fresh if your connection drops.
Navigate to where PES 2021 is installed. Default Steam location:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\eFootball PES 2021 SEASON UPDATE\
Inside the PES 2021 root directory, look for a subfolder named exactly download — all lowercase, no spaces. If it is not there, create it manually.
Move the facepack CPK directly into the download folder. Not into any folder inside it. Directly in, at the top level. PES 2021 only reads CPK files placed at the root level of the download folder.
This tool tells PES 2021 which CPK files to load at startup. Search DpFileList Generator PES 2021 if you do not have it — it is free everywhere. Open it, point it at your PES 2021 download folder, let it detect your files automatically.
Your 2026 facepack needs to sit above any other face CPKs in the list. PES 2021 reads from top to bottom and stops at the first match it finds. Drag the 2026 facepack to the top, or at minimum above every other face-related file.
Click Save. This writes DpFileList.bin into your download folder — what PES 2021 actually reads at startup. Close the tool without saving and nothing you just did changes anything.
Start PES 2021. Find a player covered by the pack in edit mode or load a match. If the face looks updated — correct hair, accurate complexion, current geometry — the install worked.
When It Breaks
Load order. Open DpFileList Generator, drag your facepack above every other face file, save, restart. Resolves it almost every time.
Corrupted CPK file. Delete it entirely, download fresh from the link on this page, do not resume a partial download, reinstall.
Conflict with another face CPK. Remove other face mods temporarily, test with only the 2026 pack active, then add them back one at a time to find the conflict.
Not a facepack issue. Go into PES 2021 video settings and increase the texture resolution slider.
A lot of people run both PES 2021 and PES 2017 on the same machine. If you are in that group, the PES 2017 World Cup 2026 Mod Pack is worth your time — all 48 national teams with real 2026 tournament squads, official tournament kits, and stadium mods from the host venues in the US, Mexico, and Canada.
Pichatz Official does not host, distribute, or link to any copyrighted base game files or original game executables. All facepack modification files discussed in this guide are independently created works by the PES modding community, shared for personal, educational, and entertainment purposes only. Player likenesses used in these modifications are fan-made recreations with no official affiliation with Konami or any football rights holder. Users are solely responsible for owning a legitimate licensed copy of PES 2021 before applying any modifications.
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