We’re in that delightful, post-Christmas period where the biggest soccer leagues are wonderfully spicy. Nottingham Forest are on track to return to the Champions League for the first time since 1980; Atlético Madrid top La Liga; Napoli have rebounded in Italy; most importantly, Hartlepool United remain National League playoff hopefuls with two games in hand.

Still, none of these teams have players that feature in FC 25’s Team of the Year (TOTY) Final XIs, which EA revealed today (January 16). Following a fan vote that contended with a massive longlist of finalists, the 22 top players have finally been selected for its men’s and women’s squads, influencing the next major batch of FIFA Ultimate Team cards over the coming days and weeks.

Both teams, which adopt the classic 4-3-3 formation (and not the “4-4-f***ing-2” aging Brits like me continue to crave, if only for nostalgia), should give a few quick and clever players an all-important edge. Most importantly, it might provide the excellent FIFA creator NoahsNoah2 a good reason to return to YouTube — despite making no money off his videos — and once again indulge his buy-to-win strategy 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 starting FC 25 TOTY men’s XI, Liverpool have two, while the rest is split between Bayer Leverkusen, Arsenal, Chelsea and, er, Aston Villa.

Most impressively — but perhaps not entirely surprisingly — Rodri, who’s been injured since September 2024 with a ruptured ACL, makes the team. At the time, reports speculated how his loss would deeply affect Manchester City’s fortunes, and many of us laughed, given they’ve dominated English football for so long, but then the Citizens have gone on to win just six of their last 16 league games (and lost just as many). It’s rare that a player’s value goes up while they’re injured.

Goalkeeper

• Emiliano Martínez (Aston Villa/Argentina)

Defense

• 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)

2025 EA Sports FC women’s Team of the Year

Gone are the days of American dominance in women’s soccer — just one U.S. player makes the top XI. Barcelona are the biggest force for female football in FC 25, with four players; Chelsea are close behind with three.

Two Norwegians make the list, who expose how undervalued the Toppserien is; both Guro Reiten (Chelsea) and Caroline Graham Hansen (Barcelona) are the only two players on the entire team who don’t play in their own domestic league.

Goalkeeper

• Ann-Katrin Berger (Gotham FC/Germany)

Defense

• 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/U.S.)
• Lauren James (Chelsea/England)

When you can get your EA Sports FC 25 TOTY players

EA Sports FC 25’s Team of the Year attackers will be released tomorrow (January 17), midfielders on January 19, and defenders and goalkeepers on January 21. The complete TOTY rosters will be included in the Football Ultimate Team item pool from January 23 to January 31, with honorable mentions and the twelfth man/woman introduced on January 24.

Read the full list of EA Sports FC Team of the Year nominees here.