FUT Birthday: Dates, features & SBCs for the FIFA 21 Ultimate Team event

FIFA Ultimate Team celebrates its 12th birthday this year, meaning the annual FUT Birthday promotion returns again for FIFA 21.

The promotion usually brings back some of the most popular players from past editions of FIFA, giving them huge upgrades and special cards.

Additionally, FUT Birthday offers a range of pack promotions in the store, as well as other in-game objectives and squad building challenges.

What is FUT Birthday?

FIFA Ultimate Team first arrived as an additional download in FIFA 2009 and was only a small part of the overall FIFA experience.

However, in the years since, it has grown to be the biggest and most popular game mode in FIFA and EA Sports usually celebrates its birthday every year with a special promotion.

In the past few years, FUT Birthday squads have been released with two teams available in packs for a week each.

Other upgraded players can be acquired by completing objectives or squad building challenges (SBCs).

When will FUT Birthday begin?

Every year, the FUT Birthday event begins on the last Friday of March, so this year it began on March 26 .

The promotion usually runs for two weeks, with a FUT Birthday squad being released on March 26 and then a second team being added to packs on April 2.

The main part of the FUT Birthday is the two special teams, containing popular players from previous editions of FIFA.

These players receive huge ratings upgrades, while some are also given position changes and upgrades to their skill rating and weak foot.

Additional FUT Birthday players will be released in daily Squad Building Challenges (SBCs), as well as weekly objectives.

The weekly objective players require you to complete a certain number of in-game objectives, including scoring a certain amount of goals or providing a particular amount of assists.

Who is in the FUT Birthday squad?

The FUT Birthday Team 1 includes numerous upgraded players including Thiago, Leroy Sane, Jamie Vardy and Ivan Perisic.

As well as the squad that is available through packs, there is also a Squad Building Challenge for FIFA legend Lukas Podolski as well as a special version of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar available through objectives.

FUT Birthday Squad:
CM: Thiago (Liverpool) - 92 OVR
ST: Jamie Vardy (Leicester City) - 91 OVR
CAM: Leroy Sane (Bayern Munich) - 91 OVR
RM: Ivan Perisic (Inter) - 90 OVR
CAM: Lucas Moura (Spurs) - 89 OVR
LB: Ferland Mendy ( Real Madrid ) - 88 OVR
ST: Inaki Williams (Athletic Bilbao) - 88 OVR
CB: Mario Hermoso (Atletico Madrid) - 87 OVR
RB: Junior Sambia (Montpellier) - 86 OVR
LM: Moses Simon (Nantes) - 85 OVR
ST: Hwang Hee-Chan (RB Leipzig) - 85 OVR

Will there be special offers during FUT Birthday?

Ahead of FUT Birthday, EA Sports celebrated Player Days by awarding free packs to FIFA users. These packs increased in value the more time you spent playing FIFA 21 so far this season.

An additional reward pack was also awarded when players logged in after the launch of FUT Birthday.

As well as these untradeable rewards, special packs will be added to the store during the entire FUT Birthday event.

These packs will be available for limited periods and have purchase limits, while some of the FIFA community have speculated that "2 for 1" pack offers could be part of FUT Birthday after buy one get one free packs were added to the game's code.