There is a wave of hype that comes with every new FIFA game, and this year has been no different. The release has happened in stages with streamers first getting their hands on the gameplay before EA Access members got a trial then pre-orders went out a few days early.

Last week, the full game officially became available to everyone and the critics are already out. Whether it’s the gameplay, the content, the graphics or whatever else people can find, there are always going to be some complaints.

But one thing that will get people excited no matter what is seeing those first ratings of their favorites teams and players.

Plans begin to come together for those who enjoy Ultimate Team on which players may be the most meta or how you can fit in your favorite players into the same team. People will jump into career mode to see how they can put together a super team right away — just choose Paris Saint-Germain — or see what young players they can buy up to have a great team five years down the road.

Whatever your preference is within the game, there are plenty of options to use some of your favorite players as a Juventus fan. Although for starters, you can’t actually use Juventus due to licensing still, so you get to be a Piemonte Calcio fan when playing FIFA. But still, the players are there and there is fun to be had. So let’s take a look at how you can enjoy Piemonte Calcio in FIFA 22 and what to expect throughout the season.

Ultimate Team

In case you don’t play FIFA, here is a quick rundown on what FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) is. The premise is basically a massive trading card game. Each player gets a base card and promotional cards, both performance based and non-performance based, are released throughout the season. You can build your own team by connecting players of your choice through club, league or country. So let’s get into it.

Elite players

The expected names make this list with five Juventus players grabbing a base rating of at least 85. It starts up top with La Joya himself, as Paulo Dybala is an 87 overall. He is the perfect maestro for any FUT squad with 90 dribbling, 86 passing and 86 shooting even before any boost from a chemistry style.

Everybody else in the tier is on the defensive end and can make a pretty solid backline without any other club. Giorgio Chiellini gets an 86-overall card (see more on him in a second), while Leonardo Bonucci and Matthijs de Ligt each are rated at 85. De Ligt is the fastest and most physical of the three defenders, while Chiellini has the highest defending stats. Bonucci’s specialty is a nice 69 overall on passing attributes, which is brought down by things like curve and free kick accuracy. His long passing and short passing are each rated at 81.

Most popular

The game has not been out very long but it’s still clear who the most popular Juventus players will be this year. It helps that they play on the same side of the field and can provide a perfect link to each other to help with team chemistry.

The first is, of course, Federico Chiesa. He’s the fastest player on the team with a 91-pace rating to go with his 85 dribbling and 81 shooting. Chiesa has four-star skills and four-star weak foot which makes him a great attacker. Winger, striker, attacking midfielder, it doesn’t matter. You’ll see a lot of Chiesa this year, especially once promo cards come along.

Cuadrado is right there behind him in popularity and is actually more expensive than Chiesa currently. He’s the team’s lone five-star skiller to go with his 90 pace. Sadly, you may see people use him because of his pace, slap a defending chemistry style and keep him back in a back four. He’s really good everywhere though and you’ll see him as a wingback and sometimes even a winger if people want to get creative.

Gullit Gang

If you’re familiar with FUT, you know what this means but if you’re not, it’s very simple. If your card has 80 or above on every base rating on your card, you get to join the Gullit Gang. That means pace, shooting, passing, dribbling, defending and physical. The Gang has certainly expanded more in recent years with last year’s game having the largest group ever and this season, Juventus certainly has some base cards that could make it.

For starters, Adrien Rabiot actually had a card that made the cut last season and his base ratings this year have him in the conversation again. A promo card would certainly do the trick but even just two performance-based cards, whether it be Team of the Week or Man of the Match promo, would put Rabiot into the meta conversation.

Weston McKennie could also get this recognition this season. He already has at least 74 on all his base stats and one in-form card would be a plus-4 to his overall which means big boosts to his base stats. His pace and physical are already over 80 and his passing, dribbling and defending would have a chance to get there with one Team of the Week. He will need multiple boosts to reach Gullit Gang though as his shooting sits at just 71 (as we have found out recently).

Promos To Watch

There are certainly some big promos every single year and it’s always fun to see what Juventus players can pop up. There is unlikely to be a player in the Team of the Year promo this time around but there will now be Serie A Player of the Month cards released every month which really should feature a Juventus player or two throughout the season.

One guaranteed promotion is FIFA’s Road to the Final which will feature one player from each Champions League team. That card will then get upgraded based off how the team performs, getting an upgrade with each round the team advances to. This would be a great spot for McKennie or Rabiot if they want a shot to reach that Gullit Gang. I could also see Chiesa being one of the highlights for this promo.

Some of the other things I’d love to see this season would be a FUT Freeze Cuadrado, maybe a RuleBreaker Bonucci with some extra pace. I fully expect a Flashback Chiellini to be released this season and possibly an End of an Era Gianluigi Buffon which I’m getting even if he isn’t technically on Juventus anymore.

The only promo card currently available for a Juventus player is the Ones to Watch Manuel Locatelli. Ones to Watch features the biggest transfers of the summer and it is a dynamic card which upgrades with any performance-based specials released for the player. It will also upgrade if Juventus win five of 10 domestic games beginning with last week’s win over Torino.

One of the more popular promos from last season was Silver Stars and it has returned this season. Each week, a base silver player is chosen as the Silver Star based off the player’s real-life performance. The cards can be earned through the Silver Lounge, a silver-only gameplay lobby, and it’s awesome. Juventus does have one contender this season with Luca Pellegrini based at a 74 overall. Give me one good game this season with a pair of assists or a goal and this is going to happen.

Icons

One of the most fun parts of playing Ultimate Team is getting to play with the Icon cards and there are plenty with Juventus connections.

It starts near the very top of the list with Zinedine Zidane who is the highest rated 5-star skills, 5-star weak foot card in the game. Then the focus shifts to the Italians.

Roberto Baggio has the highest rated card of the Juventus Icons from Italy with a 93-rated card, highlighted by his 92 passing and 92 dribbling along with five-star skills. Alessandro Del Piero has his card just behind Baggio, coming in as a 92-rated center forward with 92 shooting, 89 passing and 92 dribbling, getting the edge on Baggio with a five-star weak foot.

Andrea Pirlo’s Icon card also comes in at a 92 overall and has both of them beat with 95 passing to go with 91 dribbling and five-star skills. David Trezeguet is one of the more underused icons in the game but his 91-rated card includes 92 shooting which makes for some pretty simple finishes.

Pavel Nedved is exactly as you’d expect him to be in game, playing similarly to Dybala with his passing and dribbling stats standing out to go along with strong pace and shooting. His five-star weak foot makes him lethal from just about anywhere on the pitch.

You also can’t forget about the defenders who have made the list including Fabio Cannavaro whose highest card comes in at a 92 overall with 95 defending. Gianluca Zambrotta’s top card is an 89-rated right back with 90 speed, 84 passing, 85 dribbling, 88 defending and 86 physical. He’s the most well-rounded card of any of the Juventus icons.

Career Mode

If you’re not into the trading card system that comes with Ultimate Team but still want to enjoy the complexity that comes with building your own club, you’re likely going to be looking at the manager mode. And if you want to start with Juventus, you’ve got a pretty good roster when it comes to video game mode.

Piemonte Calcio, as you’ll be known as, has the veterans on the team that you will immediately be looking to either usher in younger replacements or at the very least, set up a scouting network. De Ligt is going to need a new partner on the backline soon and career mode is your way to control who that defender will be, either homegrown or spending loads of money without the worry of real-life debt.

Speaking of de Ligt, he is obviously one of the players that holds the most value in the current roster. At just 22 years of age, he is rated at 85 overall with a potential of 90 and a contract through 2024. However, for the first time since 2019, de Ligt does not have the highest potential on the team.

To no one’s surprise, that title belongs to Chiesa this year who has a potential of 91 which would be a big jump from his current rating at 83. Chiesa is one of four players to have a projected +8 raise in their overall rating during career mode. Two of them are expected with Moise Kean, who has a current rating of 79 and a potential of 87, and Dejan Kulusevski who has a potential of 89 overall. The other is Pellegrini who has a projected boost to an 82 overall rating.

There are a few other jumps that could be made by some of Juve’s young midfield players. Manuel Locatelli (82 to 87), Rodrgio Bentancur (78 to 83) and Weston McKennie (77 to 82) all have a projected +5 boost to their ratings.

The two largest jumps in potential actually come from the team’s two youngest players in FIFA 22. Kaio Jorge has a base rating of 69 and has a potential of at least 82 as a center forward who is also under contract until 2026, which is great for value. Nicolo Fagioli has the largest projected jump, showing a potential of at least 83 overall, 15 more than his current 68 rating.

Paulo Dybala is already an 87 overall but still shows potential to go to at least an 88 before hitting his peak. That is a far cry from his 94 potential on FIFA 19 when the club name Juventus could still be used.

All of these potentials are estimates for peak overalls in these players careers when controlled by an AI manager. However, when you are in charge of the team, it can sway those potentials and ratings based off form, playing time and training sessions. A 91 potential doesn’t mean a player will automatically reach 91 and a player with a 82 potential does not necessarily mean they will not be better than that. So take it upon yourself to make the most out of the current roster and see what you can build for the future.