The European Championships have arrived in EA Sports FC 24 with a whole new game mode and a “festival of football” in Ultimate Team.

Akhil Arora, an avid gamer and football viewer, who has been playing EA Sports FIFA since 2002 and has been reporting on it since 2015. He has written for NDTV and SlashFilm.

Trent Alexander-Arnold in FC 24 Euro 2024
England’s Trent Alexander-Arnold in FC 24 Euro 2024 // Photo: EA Sports

The Euro 2024 update for EA Sports FC 24 has arrived. With the European Championships starting on June 14 in Germany, EA Sports has fashioned a bunch of additions to its football video game that are meant to engage fans globally during the international competition. A bunch of new player cards are coming to Ultimate Team as part of what EA is dubbing the Festival of Football. This includes not just European players but also South American ones—Copa America 2024 also starts this month. Alongside, we have a whole separate section called UEFA Euro 2024. It’s not as extensive as the dedicated Euro games we used to get (remember those?) but there’s still a fair bit on offer and something to enjoy in between all the real-life footballing action.

If you haven’t loaded up EA Sports FC 24 in a while, you will need to download a 2GB update (at least) on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S before you can dive in. Once that’s done, here’s what you can expect from the Euro 2024 update.

FC 24 Euro 2024 Ultimate Team

The Festival of Football is the theme for Season 7 of FC 24’s Ultimate Team. That includes a series of new seasonal objectives where you must compete in friendlies or other game modes with squads built of a single team or a hybrid of two teams. At launch, the two options are One Nation Germany and Mixed Argentina/Canada. In the former, every player in your first XI must be German while in the latter, you must have four Argentinians and two Canadians.

Path to Glory in FC 24 FUT

As you play and earn XP during Season 7, you’ll unlock new player cards across the 35 levels of Festival of Football. This starts off with a 91-rated Path to Glory CDM Boris Céspedes (Bolivia, Swiss Super League).

As you climb the ladder, you can win the following Path to Glory player cards:

  • 91-rated RB Andrei Rațiu (Romania, La Liga)
  • 91-rated CM Adalberto Carrasquilla (Panama, MLS)
  • 91-rated RM Viktor Tsygankov (Ukraine, La Liga)
  • 92-rated GK Guglielmo Vicario (Italy, Premier League)
  • 92-rated CDM Renato Tapia (Peru, La Liga)
  • 92-rated LB Elseid Hysaj (Albania, Serie A)
  • 92-rated CDM Marcelo Brozović (Croatia, Saudi Pro League)
  • 93-rated LB Kieran Tierney (Scotland, La Liga)
  • 93-rated ST Folarin Balogun (USA, Ligue 1)
  • 94-rated ST Santiago Giménez (Mexico, Eredivisie)
  • 94-rated RWB Jonathan Clauss (France, Ligue 1)
  • 94-rated ST Alexis Sánchez (Chile, Serie A)
  • 94-rated CAM Bernardo Silva (Portugal, Premier League)
  • 95-rated RW Raphinha (Brazil, La Liga)
  • 95-rated CF Memphis Depay (Netherlands, La Liga)

Path to Glory cards will be automatically upgraded depending on how their team fares in Euro 2024 or Copa America 2024. One win adds one to their overall rating, three wins adds one new PlayStyle+, a quarterfinal win adds another value to their overall rating, a semi-final win increases their overall rating or gives them five-star left and right-foot ability, and winning the championship adds another point to their overall rating.

Path to Glory upgrade chart in FC 24 Euro 2024
Photo: EA Sports

According to EA Sports, the first time you log into Ultimate Team during Path to Glory, you will be granted a Global Loan item of a Path to Glory player. Unlike the standard loan card—now being called Match Loan—that is available for a set number of matches, Global Loans “begin on a set date and time for everyone and count down to a predetermined endpoint together.” That means when the time runs out, the loan item will be gone from your club. At the time of writing, Global Loans have yet to be handed out.

Greats of the Game in FC 24 FUT

Path to Glory isn’t the only new type of card available as part of the Euro 2024 update to FC 24 Ultimate Team. As part of the Season 7 ladder, you can also win the three following cards (though you’ll need a considerable amount of XP):

  • 94-rated Greats of the Game Hero GK Jerzy Dudek (Poland, Premier League)
  • 97-rated End of an Era CM Toni Kroos (Germany, La Liga)
  • 97-rated Greats of the Game Icon CF Ferenc Puskás (Hungary)

That Kroos card is an outlier—it’s part of a different series. As with Path to Glory cards, Greats of the Game cards will also be upgraded if their nation performs well. If their country scores two goals, their overall rating will be increased by one. If their country scores four goals, they will receive a new PlayStyle+ or a 1x 99 Face Stat.

FC 24 Euro 2024 teams and stadiums

All the 24 qualified teams are available in EA Sports FC 24’s Euro 2024 update. That includes Albania, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, England, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and Ukraine.

Morata, Wirtz, Bellingham, Chiesa, Jota, van Dijk in FC 24 Euro 2024
Spain’s Álvaro Morata, Germany’s Florian Wirtz, England’s Jude Bellingham, Italy’s Federico Chiesa, Portugal’s Diogo Jota, and Netherlands’ Virgil van Dijk in FC 24 Euro 2024 // Photo: EA Sports

In addition, the Euro 2024 update also features seven unqualified teams: Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Norway, Sweden, and Wales. Of the 31 teams available in the FC 24 Euro 2024 update, a few don’t have official kits. EA Sports doesn’t have the licenses for Austria and Switzerland.

Nine of the 10 venues that will host Euro 2024 are available in FC 24: Arena AufSchalke, BVB Stadion Dortmund, Cologne Stadium, Düsseldorf Arena, Frankfurt Arena, Leipzig Stadium, Olympiastadion Berlin, Stuttgart Arena, and Volksparkstadion Hamburg. (The only one missing is Fußball Arena München.)

FC 24 Euro 2024 game modes

There are four game modes in the Euro 2024 update for EA Sports FC 24, which are all tied together by what’s called the European Journey. It’s essentially an incentive system to get you to play every mode. I will get to that in a minute. Let’s look at all the available modes first.

In UEFA Euro 2024, you can play the tournament in the official format. You can pick any one of the 24 teams and try to win the Euros by controlling the full squad.

Over in Lead Your Nation, you can captain your country to glory as an authentic real-life player or by creating your own. You can choose to play as the full team but it’s not going to feel any different from the previous mode then.

Kick Off is quite self-explanatory. It’s the same as the one in the main FC 24 game. Except here, you must choose a match type: final, semi-final or group stage. You can pick from the aforementioned 24 qualified and seven unqualified teams.

That leaves Online Friendlies, the only online mode in Euro 2024 where you can use the available teams to play against a friend. As with the rest of FC 24, it supports cross-play.

Kylian Mbappe Lead Your Nation FC 24 Euro 2024
You can play with Kylian Mbappé in FC 24 Euro 2024’s Lead Your Nation mode // Photo: EA Sports, Screenshot by Akhil Arora

FC 24 Euro 2024 The European Journey

The European Journey is a series of nine objectives that offer rewards in other FC 24 game modes like Clubs, Ultimate Team, and Manager Career. You’ve to play inside the Euro 2024 update to get these rewards, naturally.

Here’s the full list of objectives and rewards:

European Journey in FC 24 Euro 2024
ObjectiveReward
Select favourite National TeamEuro Nations Team of the Season Defender 10 Match Loan
Start a Euro 2024 tournamentEuro Nations Team of the Season Midfielder 10 Match Loan
Win Euro 2024 tournament5-star coach for hire in Manager Career Mode
Create a Pro in Lead Your NationV Pro Customisation Items in Player Career
Fill all 7 PlayStyles Slots for your Created Pro in Lead Your Nation87+ Rare Gold Player in Football Ultimate Team
Play in the Final with your Created Pro in Lead Your NationPlayer Personality Points in Player Career
Win Player of the Match in Lead Your Nation by playing with a Real PlayerFUT Base ICON Player Pick (24 Match Loan)
Win a Kick Off Semi-Final on any available difficultyEuro Nations Team of the Season Attacker 10 Match Loan
Win a Kick Off Final against CPU AI on Semi-Pro difficulty or higherV Pro Customisation Items in Clubs and Volta
Complete all European Journey challengesFinal reward will be revealed in July
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