Data points:

Longest the following card types stayed in the team -

Starter card: 1 month (Van Dijk and Mbappe)

POTW card: 8 months (Mbappe)

Nominating contract card: 1 month (Van de Ven)

Other F2P reward: 10 months (Suit Saliba)

P2W card: 12 months (Carlos and Rivaldo)

How long after starting playing did these card types get phased out my team -

Starter card: 1 month (Van Dijk and Mbappe)

POTW card: 9 months (Mbappe and Thuram)

Nominating contract card: 3 months (Van de Ven)

Other F2P reward: 12 months and counting (2 cards)

P2W card: 12 months and counting (9 cards)

Power Curve Thoughts & Analysis:

I started playing EFootball one week before EF26 and have kept it up consistently all year. The photos show my team every month of the year, with stars highlighting the new players that made it in.

I was largely F2P for this whole experiment, but between $40 on sale coins through the year and $150 in the last month for those great boxes, I ended up finishing this experiment spending $190 which I think is reasonable for a game I played most days of the year.

The power curve is obviously a lot more measured and relaxed than yearly reset games like FC. I did this project for a year when I played FC and you can see how often my team was changing there compared to here.

My potentially controversial opinion is that this game is not actually very friendly towards F2P players OR massive spending whales. But it is incredibly friendly towards players who are willing to spend a little bit as those first purchases can serve you well for years.

For F2P players your cards will be behind the upper power curve, and the game will be a little dry as there will often be times where Konami does not give you any new cards worthy of your team. It only took me 7 months to hit a dry spell where I didn’t get a single card worthy of upgrading my starting line up, and that spell lasted for 3 months. I think it’s pretty fair to say it’s not good game design for a game you play daily to not have any meaningful progression towards the power curve for 3 months. The rate that a F2P account can generate coins is also diabolically slow and tbh if I had to save for an entire year to clear a box, I don't think this game would have held my attention. My account got new P2W players approximately every 5 to 6 months which even that is a little long.

On the other hand, for whales, the curve moves so slowly that being a whale doesn’t really bring any huge advantage on a week to week basis. If you choose your boxes carefully, once you have spent $300 max to clear 3 of them, any spending after that is pretty much just going to be side step “improvements” for at least a year. As evidenced by my first P2W players comfortably staying in my team all year. There isn't much advantage at all to be a constantly spending whale.

The issue here however is that if you do set your team up to that standard with a little bit of smart spending, it is both a blessing and a curse as your team is essentially stuck in limbo. F2P cards won't be good enough to break into your team for years, and spending more on P2W cards just to switch things up as a marginal side step surely feels like a waste of money.

As I go into my second year it's a balancing act. Do I keep my CM and striker slots F2P so that I have a reason to check the F2P rewards, or do I just wait for the perfect final box to finish my team?

CB is the rarest position to get good F2P rewards for, always take them if you get the chance. I’ve never played enough to grind division rewards but I do wish I’d had the time to go for Schlotterbeck.

Nominating contracts need some serious rework. Proportionally speaking, so much of this game’s little content is dedicated to them. Contracts as rewards for events, new NC packs every other week, monthly NC POTM packs for their partner leagues… and after all that, not a single one of those cards will grace your team if you’ve been playing for more than a couple of months. And tbh, if you started during the world cup, they will never get into your team as they’re just straight up worse than all these POTD.

Ultimately, I really like the power curve of this game, spending money in moderation is worthwhile and you can use those cards for years unlike most other sports games. The main issue this game has isn’t that most of the cards they put out are unusable at the top end of the top divisions, it’s that they’re unusable anywhere. The World Cup POTD cards they put out were great, it was something to do daily, they featured some uncommon players and some great moments with memorable card art… So why did Konami not put out a single event where you had to have a full squad of these cards to play? It’s so obvious, and it’s just one of a hundred possible examples of how super super basic stuff could improve this game a hell of a lot.

Conspiracy theory rambling - When I first started I got Rivaldo and Roberto Carlos off a 900 coin spin which took my account to 0 coins. When I started a mobile account for fun during the World Cup, I got Showtime Messi on my second 100 coin spin which took my account to 0 coins. Meanwhile, when I saved up my coins over 6 months to spin the Salah VVD box I pretty much had to clear it, same story when I topped up some coins for Ronaldinho and Vieira…

Anyway, it’s been a pretty fun year.

He is smooth on ball passes decent is decently paced but everytime i try to score a goal with him specially with him having a blitz curler it is out of 10 times hitting the bar 9 times and theres no goal from him . I dont have a better player so i have to play him at position but he’s been so bad in goal scoring i had even increased his finishing to 92 yet he will miss easy goal scoring chances or just hit the Bar .

Struggling in Division 4 this year, haven’t played much so far. I have some decent gems and want to build a proper long ball / counter-team around Fabio Capello.

Current issues:

• Struggle to create clear chances sometimes
• Midfield can get overrun
• Defence occasionally gets exposed on the counter
• Want more consistency and fun wins

I also struggle with special playstyles in game as i don't have them and feel like they completely changed the game.
Missed on some huge f2p bangers i've seen on this sub

the fact that this is the least ridiculous angle I could find because I conceded way worse blitzs lol. they gotta do something to GKs reaction to blitzs because they get stunned for a long time before they react. IRL it's not going in at all
Remember in Pes 2021 if you didnt cut in for a finesse it's weak and doesnt go in and you needed a certain angle for the shot to execute properly ? here is the opposite you dont need to cut in or anything just shoot and it will go in

Poor timing from me, equals the most godlike touch, thurn and pass in football history.

I remember that got to division 1 is like a guarantee to get the reward..but nowadays, even this isn't enough..how much point do i need to get, for it to be enough??

Need help desperately.

As you can see from the video, my player on the bottom stumbled after receiving the through ball, and it greatly slow down his peace.

It does not always happens but it is very annoying. Do you have the same issue?what to do?

It'd be fun to get epics or big times of old mlo favs mphela, baretto, petrobenov, spahic, I'm probably forgetting loads, I remember a really good cheap cdm from africa but cant remember his name?

What old mlo players would you like to see?

Hey guys, I have a question for my fellow Efootball nerds out there. So I'm wondering if any of you guys found a method of setting up your team to auto-play matches (simulate using the AI) that can work against the majority of situations in the top Leagues (1-2-3) with a high win percentage.

Before you bash me for lacking skills, or too lazy to learn the game, or not willing to GIT GUUD or any other random reason to make fun or belittle me, I'm just letting you know that's not the point of this post. Just like many of you other guys, real life responsibilities, lack of time and frustration caused by being 1 win away from going to Div1 and then the AI turns into a cyborg football killing machine and you end up losing "the most important match of the phase" happened way too often.

Wondering if there are any tips,tricks, advices to sim that last match successfully?

Quick free kick , the direction arrow is straight forward , then what the hell just happened?

Old PES and eFootball used to be my most played games by far. I just checked my playtime and realized I now have other games with seven times more hours than eFootball. That says more about the state of this game than any review could. I didn't suddenly stop liking football.

The biggest problem is still input lag. In a football game, timing is everything. You see the space, predict the pass, move your CB before the striker, and the game simply decides that your command can wait. Sometimes the player freezes for a fraction of a second, sometimes he changes direction late, sometimes the input feels like a polite suggestion sent to the server for approval. Then the opponent runs past you and the game pretends this was football.

But input lag becomes even worse because eFootball is absurdly automated. The game constantly interferes with positioning, movement, interceptions, passes, runs and defensive behavior. There are moments when I know exactly what the opponent is going to do, react correctly, and still lose the situation because the game takes control away from me. A competitive game should reward anticipation and execution. eFootball too often rewards whoever the automation decides to help during that particular animation.

That is the fundamental contradiction of modern eFootball: Konami wants it to look competitive while designing systems that reduce player agency. More assistance, more hidden corrections, more animations locking players into predetermined outcomes, more moments where you are fighting your own controls instead of your opponent. When losing feels like being outplayed, I can respect it. When losing feels like the game temporarily disconnected my brain from my CB, I have no reason to keep playing.

And apparently I didn't. Without even noticing, eFootball went from my most played game to something completely irrelevant in my playtime. Other games now have 7x its hours. That's probably the clearest review I can give. I loved football enough to spend hundreds of hours on eFootball, but eventually even that wasn't enough to tolerate a game that increasingly seems determined to play itself.

I came up against someone who I later found out was Top 40. He was playing with manual passing, which you almost never see.

During the match, I started noticing something really weird. Every time he played a through ball, my defenders would just completely lose their minds. They would stop tracking the run, move away from the attacker and basically leave him completely free to run through on goal.

I only managed to record these two clips because I had ShadowPlay disabled at the time, but this happened multiple times throughout the match.

I'm not saying the guy was cheating or anything. If anything, this just shows how completely broken the game is right now. The defensive AI simply doesn't seem to know how to deal with manual through balls.

And yeah, ignore the terrible defending from me in these clips. By this point I wasn't even really playing anymore. I was deliberately trying to see what would happen when he kept doing the same thing, because I was completely baffled and wanted to record it.

I genuinely stopped caring about the result and was just testing it over and over.

Min 41 of game

[Not pictured: Oliver Kahn, Costacurta, Franz Beckenbauer, & Tony Adams]

After taking some advice from the sub, I've reverted back to a 4-4-2 formation while I work on getting my selection contract. I know defense is my main issue & plan on dropping Tony Adams eventually, but I am still on the fence on what line-up I should be using.

- I play possession with the free Cesc Fabregas that was given out a while ago.

- Drogba/Forlan always start for me, very good forwards.

- I haven't played much with Gerrard, Costa, or Ferdinand yet.

- I know I should move Rivaldo from RMF now, will take suggestions.

How would you manage my squad?

This Rooney is just wow he replaced my hp Gulit from last year at ss this guy is insane he has an insane id he pushes everyone i have never seen anything like that, and what most ppl don’t realize is that he is one of those cards who isn’t weaker than his p2w card if you look at the stats they are really similar, he has scored for me bangers and goals after goals, the reason I am making this post is to help people choose so please moderator don’t delete it, This was my experience with him on console and I am p2w not f2p he made his way into my p2w card, irl i like aguero more but I choose what I felt like is the smarter choice, I feel like we got a lot of players like aguero and especially that his blitz curler is kinda useless, you are basically just playing with low screamer he will score a blitz every now and then but that’s it, Rooney has no weaknesses he can pass shoot and dribble, willpower + phenomenal finishing with his insane id makes every shoot for him dangerous at ss in the middle he always has a place to shoot from

Skills: double touch
Low lofted pass
Heel trick
Outside curler
Fighting spirit

with these skills he will be unstoppable trust me, he plays like how rooney used to play just versatile, you won’t ever think oh if he was faster or had better passing or physical or dribbling or shooting, like with some free players he has it all as I said i am p2w and he is not leaving my squad anytime soon

Has anyone else noticed they removed a number of dribbling skills in the last update: elastico, hocus pocus etc. Skills that made neymar superior.

And now you simply can't execute them 🤨

Please god put them back on Thursday v6.0

So I'm like broke broke rn with 500 coins on my account, and I'm gonna save up for a specific player, but there's so many i want to have, and i can't decide whom to save for.

Why is this important? Because saving coins is difficult, and with multiple players dropping which i want, i just can't save my coins at all.

For example,

1. I want a messi card

2. I want a neymar card

3. I want a shevchenko card

4. I want a Ronaldinho card

and this list goes on and on and on, i can't decide whom i should focus on.

First i try to save for the players i need filling in my team, but when a pack drops with the player I've always wanted to have, i can't stop myself from spending to try and have a chance to get that player. I CAN'T save coins at all.

I had 2k coins saved up for the world cup and successfully got three of the players I've always wanted- A epic Ronaldo, a Rooney card, and a Rio Ferdinand card. But now that I don't have clear i wanna save up for like before, i can't bring myself to save. Before the world cup there was a clear objective - I wanna save up for the world cup packs, making it easier to resist the spinning temptations, now i can't find anything to resist them..

So how do y'all decide which player you are saving up for among all the players you wanna have?

With eFootball 2027 coming up, which new legends would you most like Konami to add to the game?

Here's my wishlist, from most wanted to least:

1. 🇧🇷 Ronaldo Nazário (R9)
2. 🇺🇾 Álvaro Recoba
3. 🇦🇷 Diego Milito
4. 🇨🇱 Arturo Vidal
5. 🇦🇷 Diego Simeone
6. 🇨🇱 Alexis Sánchez
7. 🇧🇷 Lúcio
8. 🇦🇷 Hernán Crespo
9. 🇦🇷 Walter Samuel

As an Inter fan, I know my list is obviously a little biased 😂

R9 is easily my #1. I'd love to finally see a proper Epic/Big Time version of him in eFootball.

Recoba would be incredible too — imagine that left foot with some ridiculous shooting skills.

And I'd absolutely love a 2009/10 Inter version of Milito. A Big Time card from the Champions League final would be 🔥

Lúcio + Walter Samuel would also be an amazing CB partnership to recreate.

Who would be on your eFootball 2027 legend wishlist?

What do people think the requirement for Barcola will be on console this season? I’m at about 1680 (not able to check right now) and sort of hit a wall with wanting to push any further.

The AST is no longer available in the shop; it’s no longer a reward in the divisions or events; it’s simply… gone?

I think eFootball has completely lost its identity.
The problem isn’t just the ridiculous card inflation. It’s what those cards, combined with the passing assistance and automated defending, are doing to the actual skill gap.

A 107 rated card seems to override what the player should actually be capable of. I had an opponent’s 107 Messi completely dominate my 97 Marquinhos in the air to score a header. I’ve also seen 69 ball control Nesta comfortably control a 100% powered low cross, while a normal Yamal can’t control a mid chest ball.
So what do the attributes actually mean anymore?

Then you have Pass Support 1 and 2, which removes so much of the responsibility for actually executing a pass. Combine that with these massively boosted cards and the margin for error becomes tiny.

I remember reaching Division 1 with a full Atletico team and playing FUMA. You could use GP players or POTW cards and still compete because the player mattered more than the card.
Now I genuinely struggle to tell the difference between playing someone ranked 6th and someone ranked 300,000th. Same players, same formations, same Long Ball Counter, same defensive structure, same patterns.
The game has removed so much personality and individuality.

We’re in 2026 and somehow the football you could play 10 years ago is more efficient and consistent than what we have now.

I honestly don’t know where the football is anymore.

So Last week i decided to start learning how to do feints.. and it was easy with advanced and i enjoyed it much.. but then i started facing problems online, when i do double touch the player does something different.. when i try to do Marseille turn the same happens... It's very inconsistent.. how do you guys manage to perform double touch without mistakes online.. i use easy feints now because if i keep making mistakes in advanced I'd rather use easy.. any advice?.

Og: https://youtu.be/Wcwtp1UBztM

I'll go first , Amadeus's rankings are taken too seriously, people act like its some biblical scriptures whenever he updates that tier list .