FIFA 21 What If: How Upgrades Work, Potential Upgrades & Investment Advice


The What If promotion has come and gone in FUT 21, with players fighting for the chance to get a +2 overall upgrade.

This exciting new promo has gone down really well with players, but many are interesting to understand how it works.

Here’s all the information regarding how the What If upgrades work, as well as all the potential upgrades we could be seeing to these What If cards, followed by some potential investments you can make into these items!

Read More: What If Upgrade Tracker FIFA 21: Confirmed Upgrades, Requirements, Time And Upgrades Explained

How Do What If Cards Upgrade?

What If is another promotion tied to real-world football, similar to things such as Road to the Final, Ones To Watch and Showdown SBCs, with players able to receive upgrades in FUT 21 based on individual or team performances in real-world football.

What If cards have the chance of obtaining a one-time, +2 upgrade if their team meets certain requirements over the next 5 domestic league games since the card was issued.

  • Defenders will receive a +2 OVR upgrade if their team can keep a clean sheet in one of the next 5 domestic league matches.
  • Attackers and midfielders will receive a +2 OVR upgrade if their team can score at least 6 goals in total in their next 5 domestic league matches.

With relatively easy to obtain upgrades, with most teams likely to reach these objectives, these What If cards could be easily upgraded and will become very powerful items in FUT 21!

What If Potential Upgrades & Investments

Here are all the What If cards from Team 1 of What If, as well as some SBC and Objective cards, with their potential upgrades, and some potential investments you can look to make.

 Raphinha (SBC) & Caputo (Objective)

Both Raphinha and Caputo have been released into SBCs and Objectives respectively.

With both being midfielders or attackers, these 2 players will have the opportunity to receive an upgrade if their respective teams can score 6 or more goals in the next 5 domestic league matches.

Both teams should be able to meet these criteria, so we’d suggest picking them up!

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Team 1 Midfielders & Attackers

The What If Midfielders and Attackers are stacked with some incredible quality, with the likes of Kante, Sancho, Gomez and Odegaard all very likely to receive further upgrades, making for some solid investments.

Firstly, Kante and Chelsea look to be a solid call for a potential upgrade, however with Manchester United and Liverpool as their next 2 fixtures, they’ll perhaps be looking more towards Everton, Leeds and Sheffield United for their goals to secure the +2.

Sancho and Borussia Dortmund are pretty much guaranteed to secure him the +2, with Haland up top and a free-scoring midfield, this one seems very likely.

Sevilla and Alejandro Gomez face 19th placed Elche twice in their next 5 La Liga games, as well as 18th placed Vallodolid, so we’d be surprised if they couldn’t get their 6 needed goals in those ties.

Arsenal face a couple of difficult trips to Leicester and Spurs in the coming weeks in the Premier league, so keep an eye on them to see if they can secure Martin Odegaard an upgrade.

Moving on to Frankfurt, who have scored at least 2 goals in 7 of their last 8 Bundesliga games, we’d fancy them to carry this form on and earn Jovic his 89 rated card.

Be sure to keep an eye on Udinese, as they have some tricky fixtures in their next 5, including Milan, Sassuolo and Lazio.

Finally, Lees Melou may enter the Gullit Gang of all 80+ stats if Nice can grab 6 goals in their next 5 games, definitely one that a lot of FUT players will want to see!

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Team 1 Defenders

With only 4 What If Defenders in Team 1, these teams only need to keep 1 clean sheet in their next 5 domestic league matches for these cards to receive their +2 OVR upgrade.

Lyon currently sit 3rd in the Ligue 1 table, and face some difficult tests in the next 5 games, including Marseille, Rennes, PSG and RC Lens. Just 1 clean sheet in these games though will make Marcelo an awesome 90 rated item.

Chris Smalling is the 2nd 88 rated CB in Team 1, again going to a 90 OVR if Roma can keep a clean sheet in their next 5 games. They do face 19th placed Parma who have scored the least amount of goals in the league in their next 5, so we fancy Smalling’s chances of an upgrade.

The penultimate player to look at is Yuri Berchiche, who could stake his claim as the best La Liga LB if Bilbao can keep a clean sheet in the next 5. 

Finally, Mbabu has ALREADY had his upgrade confirmed, with Wolfsburg keeping a clean sheet against Hertha Berlin less than 24 hours since Mbabu’s release! He’ll be going up to an 87 rated item!

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For more articles like this, take a look at our FIFA 21 page.