FUTMas FIFA 19 predictions: which players to invest in for Squad Building Challenges this year

FIFA 19 FUTMas

FUTMas on FIFA 19 is a content-filled annual event on FUT which usually begins in the middle of December (it'll kick off on the 15th this year).

It’s essentially Christmas on FUT, but instead of Santa bringing you toys, EA will give you a ton of Squad Building Challenges (SBCs), most of which have great rewards and can help you improve your Ultimate Team experience.

Thanks to the sheer amount of content that will be available during FUTMas, there are a lot of coins to be made from investing in potential SBC requirements – so with that in mind, here’s a look at five types of players you should snap up for the event...

SEE ALSO FIFA 19 Career Mode: the 7 best bargain strikers you need to sign

FIFA 19 Chemistry Styles explained: which ones to use, and how much they’ll cost

83-rated gold cards

83-rated goal cards FIFA 19

These have been a bit strange on FIFA 19. Since the start of the FUT calendar, 83s have only risen on a few occasions – most notably during EA’s Black Friday promo, despite being needed for a number of SBCs so far.

Thankfully, because of the way FUTmas is usually set up, 83-rated cards should rise the way they did during the Black Friday event as EA are likely to include (tradeable and untradeable) TOTW Squad Building Challenges.

The market recently got flooded with 83-rated cards from Division Rivals and Weekend League rewards, so you’ll be able to pick up 83s for around 1.3k coins.

85- and 86-rated gold cards

85 86 rated gold cards FIFA 19

EA are likely to release an untradeable Baby Icon SBC on FUTMas in a bid to balance out the Icon market, which is way too high at the moment. The SBC would most likely require you to submit high-rated squads, thus creating a huge demand for 85- and 86-rated players.

Special player SBCs for the FUTMas roster will also make the prices of 85-rated players go up. Last year the FUTMas roster included German speedster Timo Werner, Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. We have no idea who we’re getting this year, but we’re sure it’ll be a great group of players.

85-rated cards currently cost 9k, while you can pick up 86s for 17k coins.

In Forms from popular nations

In Forms FIFA 19

In Forms were required for some FUTMas player SBCs last year, and considering the nature of the SBCs we’re probably going to see a repeat of that for the upcoming promo. Because of the high chemistry requirements, however, you’d do well to pick up some IFs from popular nations such as Brazil, Spain, France, Germany and Italy.

If possible, also stock up on IFs with good ratings like Alessio Romagnoli (84) and Santi Mina (83), both of whom are from Italy and Spain respectively.

Rare UCL cards

FIFA 19 Rare UCL cards

UCL cards debuted on FIFA 19 so there isn’t any past info on them when it comes to FUTMas, but there’s a good chance EA will release a UCL-themed SBC that will require rare UCL cards. In turn, that will make their prices rise.

The best UCL cards to pick up would be full-backs with a good league and nation combo, such as Valencia’s Jose Gaya and Schalke’s Daniel Caligiuri. Full-backs are the easiest players to get 10 chemistry points with, as you only need one green link with most formations to do so – which is why they’re always expensive when a good SBC is released.

Rare gold cards

Rare gold cards FIFA 19

We had repeatable league upgrade SBCs during FIFA 18’s FUTMas event, and considering it was well received by the FIFA community, EA are likely to include the league upgrade SBCs in their FUTMas content lineup.

The prices of rare gold cards won’t spike after the SBC gets released, but they’ll go up a bit – enough to make some decent profit off if you invest in a lot of them. Some players will rise more than others due to their popularity, though, such as Adama Traore, Mark Uth and Sven Bender to name a few, so be sure to focus on popular rare golds rated 81 and below.

You can pick up rare gold cards for just 700 coins.

More like this...

The 8 best strikers in FIFA 19 Ultimate Team (FUT) you can get for under 8,000 coins

The 5 best formations in FIFA 19: our favourite systems explained

The 11 best cheap Premier League players for your FIFA 19 Ultimate Team

12 FIFA 19 hidden gems you NEED to sign in Career Mode

The 11 best FIFA 19 free agents you can’t afford to miss 

The 7 most effective skill moves in FIFA 19

The 10 most overpowered players on FIFA 19

More FIFA 19 hints and tips • New features you’d love every day

Joe Brewin

Joe was the Deputy Editor at FourFourTwo until 2022, having risen through the FFT academy and been on the brand since 2013 in various capacities. 

By weekend and frustrating midweek night he is a Leicester City fan, and in 2020 co-wrote the autobiography of former Foxes winger Matt Piper – subsequently listed for both the Telegraph and William Hill Sports Book of the Year awards.