EA Sports FC 26: the “Glorious Destiny” vote closes on September 10 at 5 p.m. — how to influence FC 27's first FUT team

The vote that will make up the very first Ultimate Team squad of FC 27 opened yesterday, Friday, August 21, 2026, and it closes on Thursday, September 10. It doesn't take place in an FC 26 menu, but on the FC 27 ratings database, published by EA on its own website. You cast a ballot athlete by athlete, with no limit on the number of ballots.

The official times are given in Pacific Time: opening on August 21 at 9 a.m. (PT), closing on September 10 at 8 a.m. (PT). EA has not published any conversion for Europe. The calculation gives 6 p.m. and 5 p.m. Paris time, with the Pacific remaining at UTC-7 until November: no daylight-saving trap over this period. This conversion is our own, not an official time.

What the community is shaping here is the composition of the Ones to Watch squad, the one that will open the FC 27 Ultimate Team calendar from Friday, September 25 to Friday, October 9, 2026. With one caveat that EA states in black and white: the votes come in "as a complement to EA's selection process". You have influence over the list, you don't sign off on it.

The two deadlines, and what they're worth in Paris time

EA's French FAQ gives only two markers, but they are precise to the hour. The rest of the schedule is looser: the final ratings update is announced for "September", with no set date.

You have nineteen full days starting from today, Saturday, August 22. That's comfortable, and it's exactly for that reason that the topic is easy to forget: nothing flashes in FC 26 to remind you of the September 10 deadline.

One campaign name, two phrasings from EA

Two forms are circulating, and both come from EA France. The block title on the ratings page is "Football Ultimate Team: Destiné à la gloire" ["Ultimate Team: Destined for Glory"]. The squad and the campaign itself are called "Ones to Watch" ["Destin glorieux"]: EA writes "the final Ones to Watch squad". It's this second form that we use, since it's the one that refers to the subject of the vote.

On the other hand, the series of daily reveals launched on Saturday, August 15 — the 27 best male and female players, the clubs' star ratings — keeps its English title The World's Debate even on the French page. EA has not given it any French name.

Voting, in practice: three steps and one button

The process comes down to three steps, as EA lists them in its French FAQ.

1. Open the EA SPORTS FC 27 ratings database, accessible from August 21 on EA's website.
2. Find the player you think will shine during the Ultimate Team season.
3. Select the "Vote" button placed next to the athlete.

The table works like any other ranking. Its columns are, in order: RANK, ATHLETE, NAT, TEAM, POS, OVR, PAC, SHO, PAS, DRI, DEF, PHY. The counter showed 20,689 results this Saturday, August 22, men's and women's football combined. Once your ballot is cast, the "Voted" label replaces the button on the relevant row.

No cap on ballots, no athlete off-limits

This is the quirk that changes how you approach it. Asked "How many players can I vote for?", EA answers plainly: "There's no limit. Vote for as many players as you believe will define the season." Eligibility is just as broad: "Any player in the ratings database can receive votes."

So there's no trade-off to make, no ballot to ration: voting for a 90 OVR star doesn't stop you from also voting for a young second-division prospect. The only resource you spend is your browsing time.

The obvious trade-off is this: the wider the vote, the less any single ballot weighs. The useful lever isn't your number of clicks, it's the community converging on a handful of names. If you're set on seeing a specific player make the cut, vote for them and skip the scattershot approach, which drowns out your own signal.

The second ballot box, the one actually inside FC 26

Voting doesn't only happen through the website. EA has opened a second channel inside FC 26 itself, in the form of Player Picks, "1 of 2", released in batches. Each one centers on a prediction: which of the two athletes will score more goals, provide more assists, or keep more clean sheets. The first of these picks are already available.

One caveat is worth flagging. The text describing this feature appears in the August 14 Ultimate Rewind article, and the body of that page remains written in English on the French version of the site: only the layout and menu are translated. EA writes "1 of 2 Player Picks released in batches"; it's the French store that renders "Player Pick" as "choix j." We're sticking to what EA actually states: neither the number of batches, nor their release schedule, nor what each pick rewards beyond the chosen player item is documented. Keep an eye on this tab over the coming weeks rather than waiting for a dated announcement, because there isn't one.

Not to be confused with Season 10's transferable rewards

Two mechanics currently link FC 26 to FC 27, and they have nothing to do with one another. They need to be kept separate, because they trigger the same reflex: "I play here, I collect over there."

• Season 10 rewards: items — packs and consumables — earned in FC 26 but delivered in FC 27, to be claimed within a limited window and on the same EA account. We covered this mechanic and its dates on August 15.
• The Glorious Destiny vote: it pays you nothing. It feeds into a list of names. Whatever you do there doesn't fill any club and can't be claimed anywhere; there's simply the ballot's closing date, September 10.

Practical takeaway: this vote has no place on your list of things to grab before the transition. It's not an end-of-cycle task, it's a ballot, and it costs no coins and no grinding.

The ratings you're looking at today aren't the final version

EA announces a final update to the ratings database in September, once the international transfer window closes and squads are confirmed. It's only at that point that each athlete's PlayStyles will be revealed. The ratings you're reading this weekend may therefore change, and an athlete may have switched clubs by then.

Another change comes with this database: FC 27 drops the common / rare distinction on base items, now simply classified as Bronze, Silver, or Gold. This doesn't change how you vote, but it explains why these labels have disappeared.

One question remains officially unanswered: EA doesn't say whether the September update will land before or after voting closes on September 10th. Nothing dictates the order of the two dates. When in doubt, don't count on PlayStyles to settle your ballots.

What you get out of it, and the plan for the next nineteen days

The benefit isn't a pack. EA puts it differently: the p. items featured in the campaign will receive live upgrades based on real-world performance. An athlete you pushed into the squad who strings together good matches sees their card improve in the game. Hence the value of voting strategically rather than sentimentally: the return on a ballot is measured by the season the player has, not by their starting rating. The plan fits in four lines.

1. This weekend: open the ratings database and cast your ballots. Favour profiles you expect to progress or make an immediate impact at a new club, rather than ratings that are already capped.
2. Over the coming weeks: handle the p. "1 of 2" choices in FC 26 as soon as a batch appears. They aren't announced in advance, and a closed prediction can't be recovered.
3. In September: go back over the database after the final update, if only to discover the PlayStyles and club changes.
4. Thursday, September 10, 5 p.m. Paris time: the last moment to vote, based on our conversion of the 8 a.m. (PT) announced by EA. Leave yourself some margin, as a one-hour discrepancy on an unofficial conversion is never out of the question.

The rest will play out in FC 27, from September 25 to October 9. Until then, this vote remains the only thing you can do for what comes next without spending a credit, a token, or a consumable.