Team of The Year One Cap Wonders

We all know that Messi and Ronaldo feature in almost every Team of The Year promo, in fact they’ve been included in 16 of the 17 TOTY Releases. But what about those at the other end of the list, the one cap wonders. There are a whopping 41 players who have made just one appearance in an Ultimate Team of The Year, including SEVEN of this year's players.

As mentioned, there are 41 so we won’t go into massive detail about each player but instead pick out some of the most surprising.

Ribery and Robben - FIFA 14 and 15

With Messi and Ronaldo taking up 2 of 3 attacker spots for most years, we never got to see Ribery or Robben feature in the same team. Both featured just once, Ribery in FIFA 14 and Robben the following year in 15. We did actually see Ribery feature as a TOTY Icon in FC 24 but we’re not counting that.

Angel Di Maria - FIFA 15

The Holy One scores, The Holy One scores, a brilliant goal, come on Di Maria. Despite this being a Manchester United card, this was earned for his time at Real Madrid and unfortunately for Di Maria it did not end well at United. Things looked better for him at PSG, but never hit the levels needed to get back into the Team of The Year.

Luis Suarez - FIFA 17

It’s hard to believe that arguably the best striker of the 2010s only made one Team of The Year appearance back in FIFA 17. But just like with Ribery and Robben, having 2 attacker spots locked off every year will always make it tougher.

Jorginho - FIFA 22

The shocking thing here isn’t the fact that he’s only made one TOTY appearance, it’s the fact that he’s managed to make one. Granted, he did have a good year with Italy and Chelsea won the UCL. But was he THAT good? He was given a 97 rated card in FIFA 22 and hasn’t even been near the voting since.

FC 25 - 7 Players

Yes that’s right, 7 of the FC 25 Team of The Year are debutantes. With mainstays like Messi, Ronaldo and De Bruyne all falling below the top level in 2024, it left space for plenty of new players. Martinez, Carvajal, Saliba, Grimaldo, Palmer, Salah and Vini are all making their first appearance in Team of The Year. VVD aside, it’s a totally new TOTY defence!