FIFA 20 badges: the best of the crests on offer in Ultimate Team

(Image credit: EA)

User customisation is a huge part of Ultimate Team’s mystique, with certain FIFA 20 badges highly sought after on the transfer market for their specs appeal. For instance, FIFA 20 marks Salford City’s first appearance in the series - making their ace-looking lion badge an easy seller on the secondary market. But which other club emblems should you be seeking out, either to style your squad or sell on at a profit? Delve into our FIFA 20 badges guide for all the answers…

Salford City

League: EFL League Two (ENG 4)
Card type: Common bronze
Cost: 200 coins
Most bronze badges fail to sell on the secondary market – but not Salford’s, given that this is the club’s first-ever appearance in the FIFA series. The team co-owned by six Manchester United legends including David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and the Neville brothers scored promotion to the football league in the summer of 2019, and their simple lion crest has quickly become a community favourite.

New Zealand

League: Men’s National (INT)
Card type: Common silver
Cost: 600 coins

Only three nations in FIFA 20 - Bolivia (which is actually its flag), China, and New Zealand - have silver card badges, meaning all three can be flipped for a few hundred coins if you pack one. New Zealand’s is the rarest of the trio, and can be paired with their excellent home and away FIFA 20 kits for perfect symmetry.

Kaizer Chiefs

League: South African FL (RSL 1)
Card type: Rare silver
Cost: 900 coins
As explained in our FIFA 20 kits guide, South Africa’s most successful club utilises one of world football’s most bold, unique colour schemes - black and taxi gold, to be specific - meaning all its items are worth decent value on the secondary market. The logo was inspired by former North American Soccer League (NASL) side Atlanta Chiefs, who club founder Kaizer Motaung played for in the 1970s.

Orlando Pirates

League: South African FL (RSL 1)
Card type: Rare silver
Cost: 1200 coins
Kaiser Chiefs’ big rivals, and a popular choice for reasons which really shouldn’t need to be explained. Who doesn’t love a skull and crossbones? The crest’s iconic status is not lost on its current squad either. “These players are unbelievable, they are really unbelievable, to fight for the badge as much as they do,” said coach Rulani Mokwena in a recent interview.

Al Hilal

League: MBS Pro League (SAU 1)
Card type: Common gold
Cost: 200 coins
A simple one to find on the market at discard value, Al Hilal’s badge bears a mild resemblance to the Champions League logo - although it can’t be accused of plagiarism, having been in use since 1957. In Arabic, ‘Hilal’ means ‘crescent moon’: hence the clever, layered use of a football to form that specific shape.

Waterford FC

League: SSE Airtricity League (IRL 1)
Card type: Common bronze
Cost: 200 coins

“Three Lions on a shirt, Jules Rimet still…” hang on. This isn’t England. In fact, it’s Irish club Waterford, who triggered controversy in 2017 by designing their badge in a fashion which definitely looks a little bit ‘1966 and all that’. It’s in fact a modernised version of their original crest, established in 1930.

SK Sturm Graz

League: O Bundesliga (AUT 1)
Card type: Rare silver
Cost: 4000 coins
The badge for three-time Austrian champions Sturm Graz is a tough one to find on the transfer market - as I write this there are only five available, and they’re all close to maximum possible price of 5,000 coins. Indeed, ‘AUT 1’ is a good league to target if you’re looking to flip silver badges for a profit. SK Rapid Wien and LASK Linz also come up rarely, and can be resold for between 3 to 5K if nabbed on the cheap.

Manchester United

League: Premier League (ENG 1)
Card type: Rare gold
Cost: 200 coins
United appearing here so soon after Salford City won’t sit well with fans of City, Liverpool or Arsenal, but its crest is unquestionably iconic and – just as importantly – the logo has undergone only minor revision in the last half-century. (We still consider it a travesty that Arsenal’s classic ‘Victoria Concordia Crescit’ cannon design is no more.)

Newell’s

League: SAF (ARG 1)
Card type: Rare silver
Cost: 4000 coins

Yes, we know. That acronym is puerile and vulgar and something only 13-year-olds should find funny. But - newsflash - a whole load of 13-year-olds play FIFA 20. So even if you’re not personally keen on sporting on a badge that reads ‘NOB’ - short for Newell’s Old Boys - you can still make some coins by packing one and then selling it on the transfer market for a tidy 4K.

Arsenal

League: SAF (ARG 1)
Card type: Common silver
Cost: 200 coins
On the subject of Arsenal, here we have… Arsenal. Except an entirely different one: These Gunners are in fact The Viaduct Man, and play on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. This choice is a great one for trying to bamboozle online opponents as they wrack their brains wondering how you discovered a rejected design for one of the world’s biggest clubs and applied it in FIFA. Except that you didn’t, because it isn’t. Or is it? See? Let confusion reign.

UNAM

League: Liga BBVA MX (MEX 1)
Card type: Rare silver
Cost: 2000 coins
This one’s a treat to find in any silver pack, immediately guaranteeing you at least 2,000 coins should you decide to list it on the transfer market. But it’s also a good-looking one to hang onto, ensuring a shred of credibility even when you’re 0-5 down in a Division Rivals game. Trivia note: The mascot in the badge is a puma called Goyo.

Chapecoense

League: Liga do Brazil (BRA 1)
Card type: Rare silver
Cost: 2000 coins
One of the rarest FIFA 20 badges owing to the tragic plane crash which killed 71 people, including the majority of the club’s players, in 2016. Wearing it in-game is a subtle-yet-appropriate tribute to those lost in the disaster, and completely acceptable; ghoulishly buying the badge to sell on at a profit, in full knowledge of its significance, much less palatable behaviour. It was such a problem immediately following the tragedy that EA issued complimentary Chapecoense badges and kits to every FIFA 17 player.

Coventry City

League: EFL League One (ENG 3)
Card type: Common bronze
Cost: 200 coins
Who needs three lions when you can have, well, a griffin, a phoenix, and an elephant? There’s a question you never considered over this morning’s Corn Flakes. This one’s randomness made it a playground favourite in the days of fervent lunch-break Panini sticker swapping, which coincided with Coventry’s unbroken 34-year top-flight spell. The team may be rubbish now, but its crest is anything but.

Lecce

League: Serie A (ITA 1)
Card type: Rare silver
Cost: 2500 coins
Languishing in the Italian third tier as recently as 2017, US Lecce secured two consecutive promotions to return to Serie A ahead of this season – and as such, they’re the only ITA 1 club in FIFA 20 with a silver, rather than gold, badge. It’s a looker too, featuring a she-wolf prancing imperiously in front of an oak tree, and just the merest hint at the club’s yellow-and-red striped home kit.

Guangzhou Evergrande

League: CSL (CHN 1)
Card type: Common gold
Cost: 200 coins
I could expend unlimited words and energy giving you a detailed breakdown of this one’s charms and history, but, well, just look at it. it’s a massive burning tiger with the words ‘Be The Best Forever’ on it. Not just today. Not just tomorrow, or for the next week. Forever. A masterpiece, and officially my badge from now until FIFA 21.

FIFA 20 is out now. More interested at what Ultimate Team cards can do on the pitch than off it? Then you need our FIFA 20 best players guide, charting the top ten players you can buy in FUT.