There are about a million games battling for our attention during this holiday season. FC 26 jumped out with the easiest possible way to grab us, a free Ultimate Team card. If you log in between now and January 12, 2026, you will get a Classic XI Hero. This group is inspired by Club and League Heroes who have earned legions of adoring fans with their excellent play.
Even better, these players will improve at the start of the year. They'll upgrade into Team of the Year Honorable Mention Heroes, cards that capture the essence of some of the beautiful game's biggest moments. These are the Heroes that will appear in your special free packs when you login.
- Blaise Matuidi
- Claudio Marchisio
- Guti
- Ze Roberto
- Jean-Pierre Papin
- Mario Gomez
- Gianluca Vialli
- Diego Forlán
- Tim Howard
- Harry Kewell
- Vincent Kompany
I got Matuidi, and he has Tiki Taka+, one of my favorite abilities. I already love the card, and I can't wait to see his TOTY Honorable Mention upgrade. If you haven't checked on your team in a while, this is a great excuse to get back into it.
A December 1 patch looked at the some of the other biggest issues in FC 26, and has addressed a few of them.
One of the biggest focuses in this year's game was goalkeeping. The goalies have not been reacting well to first-time shots, and the December 1 tuned that up a little bit.
AI defending, particularly in the back, has been very powerful this year. I've seen numerous strategy gurus recommending controlling your midfielder all the time to take advantage of the AI's defending. I've started doing it too, because they don't give up as many goals as I do when switching to the last line of defense.