FIFA 22 Headliners promo: Team 2 revealed, FUT leaks, how it works, more

One of the most popular Ultimate Team events, the live Headliners promo, is now live in FIFA 22, with the iconic orange-and-purple upgrades bringing in the 2022 new year in style.

December has been a mixed bag for FIFA 22 promos, with the controversial Versus event quickly forgotten for the far superior Winter Wildcards release.

Now, EA is sending the month out in style.

According to leaks, the next FIFA Ultimate Team promo will be “Headliners,” a sure-fire exciting promo that adds high-rated live cards into the mix every year. First unveiled in 2019, Headliners has quickly become a fan-favorite, and this year’s batch is sure to be no different either.

Expect a cracker lineup ⁠— Headliners never disappoints ⁠— in FIFA’s final 2021 promo, as well as packs, SBCs, objectives, and more. Here’s everything we know.

Contents

• Headliners teams 1 & 2 revealed
• How long in packs
• Headliners leaks
  • Team 1 leaked
  • FUT loading screen
  • Team 2 leaked
• How do FUT Headliners work?
• Our Headliners predictions

EA SPORTS

Headliners celebrate some of the best performers in world football across the season.

FIFA 22 Headliners lineups revealed

Team 2 released

• Salah — 93
• Kimmich — 91
• Joao Cancelo — 90
• Vinicius Jr — 88
• Barella — 88
• Laborde — 88
• Watkins — 86
• Zapata — 85
• Theate — 85
• Joselu — 84
• Aritz Elustondo — 84

Team 2 mini drops

• Fofana — 88
• Trapp — 88
• Rafael Leao — 86
• Wilson — 84

Team 1 released

• Mbappe — 93
• Van Dijk — 91
• Nkunku — 89
• Koulibaly — 89
• Carrasco — 88
• Simeone — 88
• Acuna — 88
• Reece James — 87
• Diaz — 87
• Shick — 85
• Candreva — 85

Team 1 mini drops

• Sangare — 86
• Savanier — 87
• Gnabry — 86

How long will FIFA 22 Headliners cards be available in packs?

The FIFA 22 Headliners Team 2 cards released on Friday, January 7. It’s expected that they’ll be available in packs for a week until — more than likely — the next promotion rolls around.

Headliner leaks revealed

The first FIFA 22 Headliners leaks trickled in on December 24, with both the card design and the first batch of players turning up online.

FUT insider @LEVELd_Up gave us our first look at the event’s 2022 card design. Like the Headliners cards of years past, this one has a deep orange and purple design, with a “live” symbol.

• Read More: FIFA 22 promo calendar: all events & special squads

Each of these live cards will get their own custom images, usually from the current season, that will remain the same for the game’s lifespan.

Headliners Team 1 leaked

FIFA Twitter account FutSheriff posted what they believed was the complete first team coming to packs when the event gets underway. Some of the predictions turned out to be true. Here’s the full list they leaked:

• Van Dijk — Liverpool
• Mbappe — PSG
• Koulibaly — Napoli
• Nkunku — Leipzig
• Gnabry — Bayern Munich
• Acuna — Sevilla
• Carrasco — Atletico Madrid
• Luis Dias — Porto
• Reece James — Chelsea
• Simeone — Hellas Verona
• Savanier — Montpellier
• Sangare — PSV

FUT loading screen confirms Headliners

EA SPORTS confirmed the return of the Headliners promo ahead of time via the usual FUT Loading Screen leaks in Ultimate Team.

• Read More: FIFA 22 Ones to Watch tracker: all confirmed upgrades

The in-game reveal also confirmed the earlier Headliners card design leaks, as well as the date Dexerto had already told players to be ready for.

Headliners Team 2 leak

Much as the first batch of Headliners cards did, Team 2 has begun circulating online. These leaks could easily turn out to be untrue, but they do come from sources that got Team 1 spot on.

Again, courtesy of FutSheriff, check out the full list of leaked players:

• Mohamed Salah — Liverpool
• Joshua Kimmich — Bayern Munich
• Joao Cancelo — Manchester City
• Vinicius Jr. — Real Madrid
• Seko Fofana — RC Lens
• Nicolo Barella — Inter Milan
• Kevin Trapp — Eintracht Frankfurt
• Gaetan Laborde — Rennes
• Rafael Leao — AC Milan
• Duvan Zapata — Atalanta
• Ollie Watkins — Aston Villa
• Joselu — Alaves
• Arthur Theate — Bologna
• Calum Wilson — Newcastle United
• Aritz Elustondo — Real Sociedad

How do Headliners cards work?

Headliners upgrades are quite simple: if the live FIFA 22 players meet one of three conditions, based on real-life performances, they get an upgrade to their Ultimate Team stats for the rest of the year.

They get upgraded if the player:

• Gets a new Team of the Week card
• Earns a Player of the Match upgrade
• Players’ team wins four games in a row (one-time)

Headliners can be upgraded four times before the end of the year, and always stay +1 rating ahead of whatever the player’s highest-rated TOTW card is at the time.

EA SPORTS

These live cards can be incredible FIFA cards by the end of the cycle.

Our FIFA 22 Headliners predictions

In previous years, Headliners cards have been dished out to players who have had a fast start to the season. This could mean they already have racked up a number of in-forms, have won POTM, or have just been solid the whole campaign.

With this in mind, we’ve put together some of this season’s best performers who we’re expecting to see featured in the promo:

• Salah (Liverpool)
• Mbappe (PSG)
• Benzema (Real Madrid)
• James (Chelsea)
• Nkunu (RB Leipzig)
• Jota (Liverpool)
• Brandt (Borussia Dortmund)
• Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
• Carrasco (Atletico Madrid)
• Barella (Inter Milan)
• Cancelo (Manchester City)
• Laborde (Rennes)

To give you an idea of which players EA SPORTS might give the nod to, we’ve collected all the highest-rated Headliners players from years past, spanning from FIFA 19 to 22 last year, any of which may be included again:

Top FIFA 19 cards

• Pogba ⁠— 90
• Alex Sandro ⁠— 89
• Sane ⁠— 88
• Werner ⁠— 88
• Reus ⁠— 88
• Sommer ⁠— 88

Top FIFA 20 cards

• Neymar ⁠— 94
• Lewandowski ⁠— 93
• Salah ⁠— 93
• Mertens ⁠— 90
• Reus ⁠— 90
• Aubameyang ⁠— 89

Top FIFA 21 cards

• Fernandes ⁠— 91
• Fabinho ⁠— 88
• Ben Yedder ⁠— 87
• Oyarzabal ⁠— 87
• Zaha ⁠— 87
• Joao Felix ⁠— 86

Knowing EA SPORTS, any of these players could be picked again.

EA SPORTS

Marco Reus has popped up in two of the past three Headliners squads.

So there you have it ⁠— everything we know about FIFA 22’s returning Headliners promo, which is set to arrive right at the end of the year. Expect SBCs, a deluge of event packs, and objectives during the promo too.

We’ll keep you updated on all the latest developments right here.