EA FC 26 will launch one of its most important promotional events of 2026, Team of the Year, in mid-January. The official pre-promotion has begun 10 days in advance.

Player voting has begun, and new players and icons may be added during this promotion. Let's take a look at what's worth paying attention to and looking forward to.

TOTY Event Guide

TOTY promotion allows players to vote for the best players in world football in 2025. These players will receive special edition TOTY cards with extremely high ratings and attribute boosts, typically becoming one of the strongest cards of the season.

Players can vote in-game or on the official website to choose who should be included in Team of the Year. After voting ends, the official team will combine community votes and their own selections to form the final FC 26 Men's and Women's TOTY 11s.

Loan Players

Voting for Team of the Year is now officially underway. Meanwhile, players will be able to obtain a free loan option for a group of Team of the Year nominees, similar to FC 25 last year, but on a larger scale. Players will be able to obtain:

• 3 attackers on loan from 27 nominees
• 3 midfielders on loan from 35 nominees
• 4 defenders on loan from 20 nominees

These are not single-match loans, but unlimited loans for 7 days. This means that, theoretically, each player can build a squad almost entirely composed of Team of the Year nominees and use them freely for the following week.

While this may diminish the uniqueness of Team of the Year cards themselves, it is likely a strategy adopted by the organizers to increase player activity.

TOTY Date

A new feature of this year's TOTY promotion is the introduction of TOTY Men's and Women's Captains. Here is the expected event timeline:

• January 7th: Voting begins.
• January 16th: Attacker lineup released, usually including TOTY Icons.
• January 18th: Midfield lineup released.
• January 20th: Defenders and goalkeeper lineup released.
• January 22nd: Full TOTY Squad released, along with TOTY Icon Team 2.
• Late January: Event nears its end, all TOTY Team and Icon cards are available for acquisition, and Honorable Mentions cards are released.

Lineup Predictions

Pina is almost certain to be included, and this card has been a beast in FC 26. If her TOTY item receives meta PlayStyle+, this card will almost completely disrupt the game's balance.

Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are again nominated. If the voting is entirely community-driven, they also have a strong chance of making the starting eleven.

In terms of specific results, voting results are sometimes not entirely based on a player's actual performance in 2025. Players may vote for their favorite players to obtain the corresponding gold cards, making the actual results unpredictable.

TOTY SBCs

It is predictable that a large number of SBCs will be available during TOTY promotion. For example, FUT 25 featured various upgraded SBCs, such as 83+ x5 Attackers Upgrades, 81+ x2 Upgrades, and 84+ x5 Upgrades.

82+ x20 Upgrade Repeatable SBC

The most sensational content in FC 25 is undoubtedly 82+ x20 Upgrade Repeatable SBC. This SBC requires one 83-rated lineup and one 84-rated lineup, and upon completion, it grants a pack containing 20 82+ OVR players, with absolutely no limit on the number of times it can be used.

This SBC completely revolutionized the game's ecosystem, allowing players to continuously use materials obtained from packs to complete new SBCs and acquire a large number of Team of the Year cards.

By spending several hours working on this SBC, you could eventually obtain a massive number of card packs, with many players using it to acquire several TOTY cards. The high-rated players it produced also made completing other large SBCs much easier.

While this SBC gave ordinary players the opportunity to obtain top-tier cards, it undoubtedly harmed the game's long-term vitality. The promotional cards released couldn't compete with Team of the Year cards, leading to a decline in game popularity.

Given the developers' current urgent need to increase player engagement, they are highly likely to release this SBC again this year. It's expected to launch with the full roster release, allowing players to invest time in it again.

Premier League Upgrades SBCs

You should also keep your eyes on Premier League Upgrades. Previously, these packs only included male football league players. However, the game has now added female football players, doubling the card pool. While the number of TOTY players has increased, the number of regular gold cards has increased even more, diluting the actual probability of drawing a TOTY card.

If the developers intend to adjust Premier League Upgrades Packs, they should either release the men's and women's league upgrade packs separately, or significantly increase the number of rare cards in the mixed league packs to improve the odds of winning. Otherwise, opening this pack will be a significant waste of FC 26 coins.

TOTY Evolution

The next thing to look forward to is TOTY Blueprint Evolution. EA FC 25's TOTY Blueprint Evolution had extremely high attribute caps and could add multiple Playstyle+ cards. This was a very popular system that allowed players to personalize and enhance their club's players. Considering that Evolution system is a major pillar of FC 26, this evolution is very likely to return.

This year's TOTY packs should be very exciting, and many players believe they should wait until the full rosters are released before opening packs, as the card pool will be the most complete. However, during the full event, the actual drop rate of packs may actually decrease, so it is recommended to spread out your pack openings throughout the event.