Starting a new Ultimate Team in EA Sports FC 27 is equal parts exciting and frustrating. Your squad is full of low-rated Gold cards, your chemistry is a mess, and building toward anything competitive takes time. Squad Foundation players exist to solve exactly that problem. These are earnable cards designed for the early weeks of FUT, giving you a reliable set of players to build around before you've accumulated enough coins or packs to chase bigger names.
The key distinction here: you cannot pack these cards. Every Squad Foundation player must be earned through Objectives, Squad Building Challenges, or the Season Pass. That's actually what makes them useful. They give free-to-play players a clear path to improving their squads without spending real money on FC Points.
All 18 Squad Foundation players in EA FC 27 Ultimate Team
There are 18 confirmed Squad Foundation players heading into EA FC 27's first Season, with the possibility of more arriving as that Season develops. Ratings sit between 81 and 84, which is exactly where you'd want earnable early-game cards to land. High enough to be useful, low enough to work well as Evolution fodder later.
Here's the full list:
How do you unlock Squad Foundation players?
Unlocking Squad Foundation cards works through three main routes: Objectives, SBCs, and the Season Pass. The split across those three methods varies by player, so you'll need to check in-game once the relevant tasks go live.
Objectives tend to be the most accessible route since they don't require spending coins on SBC fodder. They typically ask you to complete match-based tasks like scoring a set number of goals with players from a specific league or winning games with a minimum chemistry rating. SBCs cost coins but are usually completable with untradeable fodder you accumulate naturally.
The Season Pass route is the most passive: simply playing the game and progressing through Season levels will drop certain Squad Foundation cards automatically.
FC 27 Guide: All Squad Foundation Players & How to Unlock Them
Are Squad Foundation players actually worth your time?
For most players, yes, especially in the opening weeks. The 81-84 rating range means these cards slot into hybrid squads without destroying your chemistry, and that's largely because every Squad Foundation player contributes League Chemistry to your club. If you're running a multi-league hybrid and struggling to hit the chemistry threshold, a well-placed Squad Foundation card can bridge the gap.
They're not permanent fixtures. Realistically, once you've built up coins and earned better cards through packs and other rewards, Squad Foundation players will cycle out of your starting eleven. The smarter long-term play is treating them as Evolution candidates: their lower base ratings make them eligible for more Evolution paths, which means a card like Lewis Miley at 81 OVR could end up significantly stronger than his base stats suggest if you're willing to put in the work.
For players who don't spend money on FC Points, Squad Foundation cards represent some of the most reliable guaranteed rewards available at launch. Packs are always a gamble. Objectives and SBCs give you a defined endpoint.
For more context on what's available to earn across FUT this year, the EA FC 27 Hall of FUT guide covers the new legendary card rarity and how those unlock. If you want to know where the top-rated players land before committing to a squad direction, the EA FC 27 official player ratings guide has every top-rated men's and women's star listed.
Building your early FUT squad around these cards
The spread of leagues here is genuinely useful for hybrid building. You've got representation across the Bundesliga (Kofane at Bayer Leverkusen, Koch at Eintracht Frankfurt, Banzuzi at RB Leipzig, Svensson at Borussia Dortmund), La Liga (Duro at Valencia, Starfelt at Celta de Vigo, Gomez at Osasuna), Ligue 1 (Ganiou at RC Lens, Tagliafico at Lyon, Danois at AJ Auxerre), and the Premier League (Lewis-Potter at Brentford, Miley at Newcastle, Kostoulas at Brighton, Lindelof at Aston Villa).
That variety means you can realistically build a hybrid squad that covers multiple leagues while maintaining chemistry, which is the main constraint in early FUT before you have depth across your club.
For a full picture of what else you can earn and accomplish in EA FC 27, the EA FC 27 trophy list breaks down every achievement across FUT and Career Mode. And if you're still deciding whether to pick up the game at all, the EA FC 27 editions guide covers every version, price, and bonus so you know exactly what you're getting before you buy.