The first real life thing reminding me of PES, is a greek song publiced back at 2007 summer by a Reggae, Ska and Latin music band named Locomondo. I'll not post it here since you are not from Greece to understand the lyrics and the chorus is bad influence for under18's.

The fact is that the song came at PES 6 peak that year and is almost every year's summer hit since then. Obviously the song speaks about a guy doing something and playing "PRO" aka PES as we mostly call
Pro Evolution Soccer in Greece.
The rest things that remind me of PES, are usually small facts like a ML wonder kid i use and see him make a great transfer or when he joins a team i support.In many cases they make a great career other times they "early-peak" and don't achieve something bigger than a good transfer.Some examples:
1)
Rafael van der Vaart was one of my favorite player with W. Sneijder in
PES 4 Ajax. In 2005 mid-season i moved him through edit transfers to HSV my favorite team in German, for our local tournaments with friends in my appartment, although making fictional transfers was forbidden in tournament between friends. In 2005 July he moved officialy to HSV. Nice coincidence.
2)
Robinho PES 4 too, i think. He was in pes store and when i was unlocking pes-shop player used to move Robinho to Real M. and Tevez to Barcelona. August of 2005 Robinho signs for REAL M.
. I missed TEvez caused he moved next summer but not for Barcelona but for West Ham.
3)
Kompany and
Vanden Borre (Borre in PES 4) were my first signings in my old PES ML campaigns. Was happy when i saw Kompany going to HSV . Vanden Borre played for Portsmouth,Genoa and Fiorentina but didn't achieve the big carrier he was promising. The fun fact is i was wondering in PES 4 i think or maybe 5 if KOMPANY is a real player or a pes-fake one!
4)
G. Pazzini was my italian striker wonderkid back in PES 5 ML. 21 years old playing in Fiorentina, unknown to most people back then. Was so proud when he played for Inter Milan and AC Milan.
5)Other players like the previous from newer pes are,
Gabriel B. (Gabigoal) (current: Santos FC)from pes15,
Roger Beyker Martinez pes 15 (current: Villareal),
Danilo Barbosa (current: Braga)(pes 16),
Neto Moura (pes 16) SC Recife aka
V. Serpa in current PES and
M. Cassierra (pes 16) (current:Ajax)
SPECIAL:
FC Utrecht! This was a team i learned and loved through PES 5. Before i used to know only AJAX,PSV and FEYENORD from Eredivisie. Every time i listen to Utrecht or i check news i remember their PES counter-part and the young deceased player Di Tommaso.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Di_Tommaso
http://www.pesmaster.com/di-tommaso/pes-5/player/3323/
I'll post in Retro-Corner the story of how i fall in love with FC Utrecht through PES.