FIFA 23: What are FUT Birthday Icons?

The FUT Birthday campaign is back to celebrate its 15th anniversary this year, with plenty of awesome promo content set to hit Ultimate Team soon.

The FUT Birthday promo is always a fan-favourite event as EA never fails to put a fun twist on proceedings.

This year we are set for something extra special with the latest loading screen confirming that all-new 'FUT Birthday Icons' are on their way.

The announcement of the new card type has sent FIFA fans into a frenzy, speculating about what the FUT Birthday Icons could actually be.

Well, we're here to clear things up. Find out what the FUT Birthday Icons are all about in FIFA 23 below.

What are FUT Birthday Icons?

That's right - FUT Birthday Icons are officially coming to Ultimate Team.

This could be a nod to the Alternate Reality Icons that were leaked by the data-mining account Fut Scoreboard around the time of the Team of the Year (TOTY) promo.

As you can see from the latest Ultimate Team loading screen below, the FUT Birthday Icon card design is a thing of beauty.

Whilst nothing is confirmed just yet, we expect EA to release Icon cards with unique skill moves or weak foot upgrades.

For example, we could see Spanish striker Emilio Butragueno given five-star skill moves as well as his five-star weak foot, taking his card to the next level.

Or, EA could hand-select Icons crazy position changes and stat boosts accordingly, though this is more unlikely in our opinion.

If EA does go down this route, perhaps Italian legend and defensive all-time-great Paolo Maldini will pop up in the number nine position.

More on FUT Birthday

Judging from the FUT Birthday campaigns in previous editions of the game, we have a good idea of what we can expect from the FUT 23 promo.

Last year, selected FUT Birthday players were given significant stat boosts as well as huge skill moves or weak foot upgrades, turning certain unused items into meta cards.

Real Madrid's Toni Kroos, for example, was given a huge pace upgrade as well as a bump up to five-star skill moves, making him one of the best attacking midfielders in the game.

In FIFA 21, EA handed some of the game's most popular cards crazy position changes and stat boosts to go along with them.

Germany international Leroy Sane was given an insane central-attacking midfield item with a boost to five-star weak foot and four-star skill moves too.

We don't quite know for sure what twist EA will put on the special items this year, but you can be sure that some unique cards will be born as a result.

As the years have gone by more content has naturally been introduced, and now we expect special promo packs, Squad Building Challenges, Objectives and potentially a Team 1 and Team 2 promo squad too.