FIFA 21 badges: Ultimate Team’s best of the crests

(Image credit: EA)

FIFA 21 badges are both a means of looking smart in Ultimate Team, and a surprisingly effective money spinner. On the surface they're all about showing your support for a real-life team in FIFA 21, or simply attempting to look cool as your rise up the Division Rivals ranks. But the rarity of certain emblems mean that packing them, or finding a select handful cheap on the transfer market, can bring in a tidy coin haul. Below we blend FUT’s prettiest logos with the most profitable, to form your FIFA 21 badges guide.

Blackburn Rovers

League: EFL Championship (ENG 1)
Card type: Silver rare
Cost: 4,000 coins

This one will resonate with anyone who grew up playing Mega Drive FIFA: far removed from their current Championship status, Rovers spent the early nineties as perennial title challenges in the Premier League, and picked up the big prize in 1994-95. The Latin phrase Arte Et Labore means ‘By Skill and Hard Work’, and was added to the crest in 1974. In FIFA 21, it’s both beautiful and profitable, regularly shifting for upwards of 4,000 coins.

Fluminese

League: Liga do Brasil (BRA 1)
Card type: Gold common
Cost: 150 coins

When Spanish publication Marca ran a fan vote on the best badge in world football, it scored 14 million responses – with Moroccan side Raja Casablanca coming top, and Egypt’s Al Ahly in second. However, neither appear in FIFA 21. That makes Fluminese’s garnet, green and white emblem, which finished third in fan voting, the best badge on offer in-game according to that supermassive supporter poll. And it’s available at discard price, too.

Pumas

League: Liga BBVA MX (MEX 1)
Card type: Silver rare
Cost: 5,000 coins

A longstanding Ultimate Team favourite, this simple, curvaceous-yet-triangular image of a puma (see what they’ve done there?) is especially hard to find this year – as I write there’s just one on the market, for a maximum price of 5,000 coins. You’re laughing all the way to the bank should you find this card in a pack, but sniping one on the open market is close to impossible. It’s a gorgeous symbol with which to front your club if you do happen to get lucky, mind.

Real Madrid

League: La Liga Santander (ENG 1)
Card type: Gold rare
Cost: 200 coins

If Marca’s fan vote threw up some less familiar choices in its top three, the emblem that finished fourth is among world football’s most iconic. The crown in the logo was added in 1920, after King Alfonso XIII awarded Madrid the royal title ‘Real’, while the M, F, and C simply stand for the club’s original name of Madrid Football Club. It’s another you can nab on the cheap if patient.

Fenerbahce

League: Super Lig (TUR 1)
Card type: Gold common
Cost: 550 coins

Rounding out the top five in Marca’s fan vote is the badge of 19-time Turkish champions Fenerbahce. For those keeping score, the rest of the top ten read as follows: Liverpool (6), Barcelona (7), Colo Colo (8), CSKA Moscow (9), and Besiktas (10). This one is slightly pricier than Fluminese or Real Madrid, but still a long way from bank-breaking.

Millwall

League: EFL Championship (ENG 1)
Card type: Silver rare
Cost: 2,500 coins

“No one likes us, we don’t care.” So goes the popular refrain from the stands of the New Den - or at least it did in times when crowds were actually able to attend football matches. Whatever your past feelings on these infamously lairy lions, you’ll like them a little bit more should you find this badge in a silver pack - it’s worth well into four figures on the FIFA 21 transfer market.

FC Cartagena

League: La Liga Smartbank (ESP 2)
Card type: Bronze rare
Cost: 200 coins

Who? La Liga Smartbank newcomers FC Cartagena likely didn’t appear high on your list of potential FIFA 21 career mode teams this year, but their FUT budge is a different kettle of, er, castle and submarine. The club were promoted this past summer, and their newness has translated to an especially popular bronze card.

Shanghai Shenhua

League: CSL (CHN 1)
Card type: Silver rare
Cost: 1,000 coins

Happen to be a devoted FIFA 21 player residing in Greenland? It’s your lucky day. While your nation isn’t represented in this year’s digitised football effort, there is a way of showcasing your heritage in Ultimate Team, with Shanghai Shenhua’s badge surprisingly adorned with the necessary G-word. The reason is its majority shareholder: real estate developer The Greenland Group took over operation of the club in 2014, controversially updating the name from the much simpler Shanghai FC.

Valencia

League: La Liga Santander (ESP 1)
Card type: Gold rare
Cost: 200 coins

A bat and ball combo that has precisely zero to do with cricket. Instead this winged wonder represents a species that pre-dates the first human settlements in Valencia, and has perched atop the club’s emblem since 1929. The yellow and red colours, meanwhile, are here in homage to the local Senyera flag.

Kaizer Chiefs

League: South African FL (RSA 1)
Card type: Silver rare
Cost: 4,400 coins

I predict a riot, I predict a… no, wait, not that Kaiser Chiefs. The South African footballing version – which inspired the West Yorkshire musicianing equivalent – are much loved by the community, with both its badge and FIFA 21 kits exchanging for top whack on the secondary market. Pack this one and you’ll be tempted to keep it, though – it’s as beloved now as it was upon its first introduction back in 1970.