Every January, football fans eagerly check online for transfer rumours and speculate about players who could join their clubs. When a transfer is made official, excitement builds as the new arrival prepares to line out in their new club jersey for the first time.
Supporters love seeing new players make their debuts in real life, and FIFA 19 is no different, with gamers eager to immerse themselves in the experience of testing out players at their new clubs.
Since the transfer window opened on January 1, players have arrived at their new clubs in real life, but when does the FIFA 19 database get updated to reflect these changes?
When do the January transfers start in FIFA 19?
Throughout January and into early February, every single real-world transfer will be added to FIFA 19, with players assigned to their new clubs in Online Seasons and Career Mode.
FIFA Ultimate Team also receives regular updates at the start of the year, with players released in batches with their new teams assigned. Any new packs bought in the store or received through Squad Building Challenges will contain players from their new clubs.
However, existing players that were acquired earlier in the year will keep their original clubs and be traded on the transfer market. As these players become more and more rare on the market, the prices for them usually rise. Similarly, players at their new clubs are not very common on the market to begin with, so often start with high prices before dropping in value.
The first batch of January transfers were added to Ultimate Team in early January, with Naldo moved from Schalke to Monaco and Pepe to Porto. All players will eventually get transferred, but the highest-rated ones usually get priority in the updates - gold players first and then silvers and bronzes.
Will transferred players be upgraded?
Each year, player upgrades happen in February as part of the Ratings Refresh. These players receive new stats to match their real-world performances. In FIFA 19, the Ratings Refresh will once again take place in February, with dozens of players from the top five leagues and the rest of the world getting new ratings.
If transferred players have been added to the game before the Ratings Refresh, they will get an updated version of their player card in January with their new club, and then another updated player card in February with their new statistics at their new club. The ratings on the original player card with their old club or the first newly transferred player card will not receive an upgrade.
In Form (IF) cards such as Team of the Week players or cards from promotions such as Ultimate Scream or FUTmas will not be modified to reflect their new clubs. They will remain at their old clubs, but any new IFs will automatically be assigned with the new club.
Will summer transfers be added to FIFA 19?
As FIFA 20 will not be released until September, gamers will be playing FIFA 19 for many more months. In order to keep the game fresh and exciting, EA Sports releases many promotions throughout the year including Team of the Year and Future Stars, as well as all the Teams of the Season in April and May.
Gamers will continue playing FIFA 19 in the summer ahead of the release of the new game. As a result, some of the early summer transfers will be added to the database. Players such as Christian Pulisic, who has already agreed a July move to Chelsea, will be assigned to their new clubs in the summer.
The transfer window does not close until around the time the next version of FIFA is released and, as this nears, the game's developers devote all their time to the new game. This means that many late summer transfers will not get added to FIFA 19. The only way you can get the chance to use them at their new clubs will be in the new game.