Could you be thinking of the later revisions? The unit in OP’s image looks just like the gen. 1 Mega Drive that I got in Australia, and we always got the UK (which basically meant PAL/Euro) version of consoles in that era, sometimes even down to having the UK/Euro helpline numbers on the documentation. It also looks like the pictures I can find online for European gen. 1 Mega Drives.
Could you be thinking of the later revisions? The unit in OP’s image looks just like the gen. 1 Mega Drive that I got in Australia, and we always got the UK (which basically meant PAL/Euro) version of consoles in that era, sometimes even down to having the UK/Euro helpline numbers on the documentation. It also looks like the pictures I can find online for European gen. 1 Mega Drives.