FIFA 21 Headliners promo LIVE: Yedder, Fernandes, Fabinho

EA SPORTS has officially announced the next Ultimate Team promo, and it may be a bit surprising: many FUT fans were expecting Team of the Year to drop next, but instead we’re getting “Headliners” as we ring in the new year.

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FIFA 21 Ultimate Team Headliners promo countdown.

Events across FIFA 21 have been all jumbled and out of whack ⁠— perhaps in an effort to befuddle Ultimate Team investors ⁠— and apparently, the start of 2021 is going to be no different; “Headliners” is the next promo.

Headliners are interesting Ultimate Team cards, first introduced last year.

The bright orange special cards work in a similar fashion to “One to Watch cards. Real-life performances affect their value. Team of the Week, Team of the Group Stage, Hero, and Man of the Match cards all impact a Headliner card’s overall rating.

The key difference between Headliners and OTWs, however, is the newer card always stays +1 above the player’s highest card. It basically means it’s always going to be valuable, and stay ahead of the curve to boot.

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Without further ado, here’s everything else we know about Headliners 2021 including the brand new team.

When did ‘Headliners’ begin?

Headliners was already been confirmed to be starting New Year’s week, according to leaks uncovered by popular Ultimate Team dataminerFutWatchon Dec. 29. As predicted the promo will start on the very first day of the new year,Friday, January 1.

The event should run for just over a fortnight, and end in mid-January.

EA FC 25 logo and promo calendar in front of stadium

Considering the promo has been tipped to last for two weeks, there’s every chance we’ll actually see two teams for this promo. This has not yet been confirmed, however, and we’ll update you if it is.

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Franz Beckenbauer in EA FC 25

The fact that this team is called “Team 1” is a good sign we’ll indeed be getting another later on. Keep your eyes peeled on our Twitter accounts,@UltimateTeamUKand@FutWatch, to see the breaking news.

Headliners leaks

As is customary with all FIFA 21 promos this year, EA SPORTS “leaked” a number of cards early — or at least, revealed details about them.

This time around, for Headliners, we were looking at three pretty interesting cards too. The first is a Monaco star, the second is a center forward with 88 shooting, and the third and final card teased on the Ultimate Team loading screen is a Brazilian star with 85 physical as one of their stats.

There’s plenty of football superstars these cards could’ve been, but we had an inkling EA was going to load “Headliners” up with the best-sellers. That means we did indeed see Wissam Ben Yedder (Monaco), João Félix (CF), and Fabinho (Brazilian).

Ring in the new year#FUT21style with#Headliners🔥

Special unique dynamic player items that are permanently upgraded with the potential for futher upgrades based on individual and team performances throughout the 2020/21 season!https://t.co/YiB3Be9znHpic.twitter.com/wU1fWOqvyF

— EA SPORTS FC (@EASPORTSFC)June 28, 2025

Headliners lineup: who made the team?

Last year, the best performers of the year were given the tip by EA SPORTS for the Headliners lineup. All-star footballers like Neymar Jr, Robert Lewandowski, Mohamed Salah, and plenty more huge names graced the star-studded FIFA 20 promo team.

The trend, it seems, is based on how many in-form TOTW cards those players had already raked in, and their on-the-pitch performances too.

This year EA isn’t giving us as many powerhouse cards with Headliners, but Bruno Fernandes, Zaha, and the rest should do just fine, especially if they’re able to bump the stats up over time.

The full list of Headliners Team 1 players is below:

So there you have it ⁠— everything we know about FIFA 21’s next Ultimate Team promo, Headliners, so far. Make sure you keep a few FUT coins in your back pocket; if the event is anything like last year, there’s some cracking cards on the way!

We’ll update this article when the promo begins. As always, stick with us on Twitter@UltimateTeamUKfor all the latest FIFA news, updates, and content.