It will come as absolutely no surprise that Jude Bellingham has made the FC 25 XI final in a fan. … [+]
We’re in that delightful period, after Christmas, where the biggest football leagues are extremely spicy. Nottingham Forest are on course to return to the Champions League for the first time since 1980; Atlético Madrid leads La Liga; Napoli has recovered in Italy; more importantly, Hartlepool United remain National League playoff hopefuls with two games in hand.
However, none of these teams have players included in FC 25’s Team of the Year (TOTY) final XIs, which EA revealed today (January 16). After a fan vote battled through a massive longlist of finalists, the top 22 players have finally been selected for its men’s and women’s squads, impacting the next big set of FIFA Ultimate Team cards over the days and weeks in the following.
Both teams, who adopt the classic 4-3-3 formation (and not the “4-4-f***ing-2” old Brits like me keep wishing for, if only for nostalgia’s sake), must deliver some fast and smart players a very important advantage. More importantly, it could give the brilliant FIFA creator NoahsNoah2 a good reason to return to YouTube – despite not monetizing his videos – and once again satisfy his buy-for strategy won to push his way back to the top.
2025 EA Sports FC Men’s Team of the Year
Despite playing second fiddle to Atlético at the time of writing, Real Madrid have four of the FC 25 TOTY men’s starting XI, Liverpool have two, while the rest are split between Bayer Leverkusen, Arsenal, Chelsea and, well, Aston Villa.
More impressively – but perhaps not entirely surprisingly – Rodri, who has been out since September 2024 with a torn ACL, makes the team. At the time, reports speculated how his loss would profoundly affect Manchester City’s fortunes and many of us laughed, given that they have dominated English football for so long, but the Citizens have since won just six of 16 their last league games. (and lost just as much). It is rare for a player’s value to increase while they are injured.
Rodri has not been seen since, when he left the field with an injury against Arsenal … [+]
concierge
- Emiliano Martínez (Aston Villa/Argentina)
PROTECTION
- Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool/Netherlands)
- William Saliba (Arsenal/France)
- Dani Carvajal (Real Madrid/Spain)
- Alejandro Grimaldo (Bayer Leverkusen/Spain)
Midfield
- Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid/England)
- Rodri (Manchester City/Spain)
- Cole Palmer (Chelsea/England)
attack
- Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid/Brazil)
- Mohamed Salah (Liverpool/Egypt)
- Kylian Mbappé (Real Madrid/France)
EA Sports FC Women’s Team of the Year 2025
The days of American dominance in women’s soccer are gone – only one American player makes the top 11. Barcelona are the biggest force for women’s football in FC 25, with four players; Chelsea are close with three.
Two Norwegians make the list, which exposes how underrated the Toppserien is; both Guro Reiten (Chelsea) and Caroline Graham Hansen (Barcelona) are the only two players in the entire squad who do not play in their domestic league.
Caroline Graham Hansen is scoring goals for fun with Barcelona.
concierge
- Ann-Katrin Berger (Gotham FC/Germany)
PROTECTION
- Sakina Karchaoui (Paris Saint-Germain/France)
- Wendie Renard (Lyon/France)
- Irene Paredes (Barcelona/Spain)
- Lucy Bronze (Chelsea/England)
Midfield
- Aitana Bonmatí (Barcelona/Spain)
- Alexia Putellas (Barcelona/Spain)
- Guro Reiten (Chelsea/Norway)
attack
- Caroline Graham Hansen (Barcelona/Norway)
- Sophia Smith (Portland Thorns/USA)
- Lauren James (Chelsea/England)
When can you get your EA Sports FC 25 TOTY players
The EA Sports FC 25 Team of the Year strikers will be released tomorrow (January 17th), midfielders on January 19th, and defenders and goalkeepers on January 21st. The full TOTY roster will be included in the Football Ultimate Team set of articles from January 23rd to January 31st, with Honorable Mentions and Twelfth Man/Woman presented on January 24th.
Read the full list of EA Sports FC Team of the Year nominees here.
