EA FC 25 Road to the Knockouts promo: All leaked players & upgrades

The first promo in EA FC 25 is set to be Road to the Knockouts, a fan-favorite event that sees cards getting upgraded as the Champions League, Europa League, Europa Conference League, and Women’s Champion’s League unfold.

With the Ultimate Team season underway, fans have wasted no time putting together squads full of the world’s best players. But the grind doesn’t stop once you’ve got Haaland or Mbappe into a team, as more special cards are set to arrive regularly as part of promo events.

The first of these is Road to the Knockouts, so here’s when it’s expected to begin and all of the players that have leaked already.

Is there a RTTK start date?

The Road to the Knockouts event will arrive on Friday, September 20, 2024, at 10 AM PDT / 1 PM EST / 6 PM BST, according to leaks from known insiders ‘FUT Sheriff’ and ‘Donk Trading.’

It’s unclear at this stage how long the event will run for, but EA FC 25’s full launch doesn’t happen until September 27. So, it remains to be seen if a second squad of players arrive for everyone to enjoy, or if RTTK will be limited to early-access players this year.

EA Sports

Bellingham is set to headline RTTK.

RTTK upgrades explained

EA FC 25 Road to the Knockout cards receive stat upgrades based on how a player’s team performs in the Champions League, Women’s Champions League, Europa League, and Europa Conference League group stage. The format has been changed to a ‘league phase’ this season rather than breaking teams into groups of four, but the requirements remain pretty similar.

Here is the upgrade path according to a leak from ‘Donk Trading:’

• Win three games in the league phase: +1 overall rating
• Team scores in four or more matches: +1 overall rating and a Player Role++
• Finish in the top two: PlayStyle+ and Player Role++

The player depicted on the card doesn’t need to play or even be in the squad for these real-life matches to the eligible for an upgrade. So, if your player gets benched or injured but their team still performs well, your RTTK item will still improve.

All Road to the Knockout players leaked

Champions League

• Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid)
• Jeremie Frimpong (Bayer Leverkusen)
• Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa)
• Diogo Jota (Liverpool)
• Julian Alvarez (Atletico Madrid)
• Jeremy Doku (Manchester City)
• Federico Dimarco (Inter Milan)
• Nicolas Otamendi (Benfica)
• Nabil Bentaleb (Lille)
• Noa Lang (PSV)
• Benjamin Sesko (RB Leipzig)
• Stefan Posch (Bologna)
• Ben Godfrey (Atalanta)
• Donny Van De Beek (Girona)

Europa League

• Christian Romero (Spurs)
• Allan Saint-Maximin (Fenerbahce)
• Robin Koch (Eintracht Frankfurt)
• Ryan Cherki (Lyon)
• Stephen Eustaquio (Porto)

Europa Conference League

• Isco (Real Betis)
• Moise Kean (Fiorentina)

Women’s Champions League

• Kadidiatou Diani (Lyon)
• Claudia Pina (Barcelona)
• Nathalie Bjorn (Chelsa)

Many of these cards are likely to be extremely expensive, so make sure you check out our guides on how to earn free coins and some early trading tips.