Winter Upgrades - Bundesliga

Team of Upgrades – Bundesliga

Winter Refresh, or Ratings Refresh, is a time when players who’ve performed well in the first half of the season receive upgrades to their regular base card ratings & stats. Although the base cards you may have in your club will stay the same, with the newly upgraded cards put into packs in the place of the old version, upgrades for particular players could lead to upgrades to their previously released special cards.

For the purpose of this article, I have selected a squad of 11 Bundesliga players, consisting of 1 goalkeeper, 3 defenders, 4 midfielders & 3 forwards who’re in contention to receive upgrades during Winter Refresh. For balance, I have limited myself to using a maximum of 3 players per club.

These ratings are based on the latest offline database & are not official.

GK: Yann Sommer, Borussia Mönchengladbach – 84 to 85

Switzerland’s no. 1 goalkeeper has been a mainstay between the sticks for Borussia Mönchengladbach for the past 6 seasons now. This season, Sommer has kept 5 clean sheets in 18 Bundesliga appearances, with only Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer (6) keeping more than him this season.

But while Neuer has made 47 saves in the Bayern goal, Sommer has made 65 (2nd most of any keeper in the league), one of which came from a penalty in Mönchengladbach’s game against Werder Bremen back in November when the scores were tied at 1-1. It proved to be a critical save as Mönchengladbach went on to win the game 3-1.

RB: Achraf Hakimi, Borussia Dortmund – 79 to 81

Achraf Hakimi is 3 quarters of the way through his hugely successful 2-year-long loan spell from Real Madrid & has developed into Borussia Dortmund’s Mr Versatile, popping up at left-back, right-back, even on the left & right-wings at times.

His ability to play on either flank makes his current 2* Weak Foot rating seem strange, but fortunately for those with Bundesliga teams, not only is Hakimi potentially heading for a +2 upgrade, he’s also potentially having his Weak Foot rating upgraded from 2* to 3*, alongside a potential position switch from left-back to right-back.

It’s fair to say his performances have not gone unnoticed as the Moroccan international has been crowned the CAF Young Player of the Year for two seasons in a row now.

CB: Martin Hinteregger, Eintracht Frankfurt – 80 to 81

It’s common to see names centre-backs on scoresheets across the duration of the season, it’s not, however, common to see a centre-back repeatedly on the scoresheet & outscoring the majority of his teammates, but that’s exactly what Frankfurt defender Martin Hinteregger has been doing this season.

His current tally of 6 goals in 16 Bundesliga appearances puts him 2nd on the list of top scorers for Eintracht Frankfurt, just 1 goal behind Portuguese striker Gonçalo Paciência. Delightfully, the offline database suggests Hinteregger’s Finishing stat is being upgraded from a measly 48, to a more respectable 61.

LB: Philipp Max, Augsburg – 77 to 78

Amongst his fellow Bundesliga defenders, no one comes close Philipp Max in terms of goal contributions this season. The German left-back has scored 6 goals & registered 5 assists in 16 league appearances for Augsburg, putting him 3 ahead of Borussia Dortmund full-back Achraf Hakimi, who has 2 goals & 6 assists, in 2nd place.

Despite this & the 2 informs he’s already received this season, it seems Philipp Max will probably only be getting a modest +1 upgrade, that’s if the offline database is to be believed anyway. I feel like a +2 or maybe a +3 upgrade would have been more appropriate but we’ll see what happens when Winter Refresh comes around.

RM: Jadon Sancho, Borussia Dortmund – 84 to 85

Jadon Sancho is enjoying yet another electrifying season for Borussia Dortmund. Sancho was not only the first Bundesliga player to reach double figures in terms of goals & assists this season, he was also the first player to achieve the feat in the top 5 European leagues.

It’s not just his total numbers that are impressive, Sancho has incredible consistency when it comes to his goal contributions. There was a spell between November 22nd & December 17th where Sancho contributed to at least 1 goal in 7 consecutive Champions League & Bundesliga matches.

Personally, I’d say that a player with Sancho’s record & ability should be rated higher than 85, but it’s easy to forget that he’s still only 19, so there’s still plenty of time for that rating to improve.

CDM: Joshua Kimmich, Bayern Munich – 86 to 87

For a time, Joshua Kimmich was one of the most creative right-backs in European football, but this season, he’s settled comfortably into a place in the Bayern Munich midfield; a switch that appears to be part of his long-term future as the arrival of Real Madrid right-back Odriozola on-loan would suggest.

Although his tally of assists has dropped, the 24-year-old still holds a significant influence over the playstyle of the German champions. Only teammate Benjamin Pavard & Bayer Leverkusen’s Sven Bender have played more successful passes than Kimmich has in the Bundesliga this season (1166) & boasts an impressive +90% passing success rate.

His change of position from right-back to central-midfield has been reflected in the offline database, so not only will we potentially be getting an upgraded, 87-rated Kimmich, he’ll also be released as a far more useful central-midfield card.

CAM: Marcel Sabitzer, RB Leipzig – 81 to 83

Marcel Sabitzer has been writing his name aplenty on the scoresheets for RB Leipzig so far this season, scoring a combined total of 8 goals & 7 assists in 23 appearances in the Bundesliga & Champions League, including a Man of the Match performance where he was involved in all 4 goals in a 4-0 win against newly promoted Union Berlin in the first game of the season.

Sabitzer’s contributions not only make him RB Leipzig’s 2nd top scorer, they have also come from a variety of different positions on the pitch, with Sabitzer tasked with playing across the entire width of the midfield line. This versatility, alongside the goal scoring exploits of Timo Werner, have proved invaluable in RB Leipzig’s push for the hotly contested Bundesliga title this year.

LM: Felip Kostic, Eintracht Frankfurt – 82 to 83

If there was ever a player that could define what “FIFA sweat” is in real life, Felip Kostic would be that player. The Serbian winger has registered more successful dribbles (59) & made more accurate crosses (56) than any other Bundesliga player so far this season.

Despite the high number of accurate crosses, Kostic has only managed to register 6 assists for Frankfurt in the league, but this relatively low number is certainly not for the want of trying, with Kostic also topping the leader board in terms of key passes (47), 2 ahead of Bayern Munich’s Joshua Kimmich (45) in 2nd place & 4 ahead of Thomas Muller & Max Arnold (both 43) in 3rd.

ST: Timo Werner, RB Leipzig – 83 to 85

After his bizarre downgrade going from FIFA 19 to FIFA 20, reversing the Winter Refresh upgrade he got around this time last year, Timo Werner has more than proved whoever made that decision foolish with his goal scoring exploits for RB Leipzig so far this season.

Werner’s on field performances won him both the November & December Bundesliga POTM awards, he was also the first Bundesliga player this season to score 20 goals in the league & currently sits alongside Robert Lewandowski at the top of the Bundesliga goal scoring chart.

A big upgrade would be deserved, especially as Werner is currently keeping pace with the rest of Europe’s most in-form attackers, but it seems he’ll only be given a modest +2 upgrade for now.

ST: Robert Lewandowski, Bayern Munich – 89 to 91

We’ve known for years that Robert Lewandowski is one of Europe’s most fearsome strikers, but this season he’s proven to be even more prolific than we ever realised, with the Polish striker currently sitting at the top of both the Bundesliga & the Champions League goal scoring charts, with a combined tally of 30 goals in 23 appearances.

At the start of the 2019/20 season, Lewandowski became the first player in Bundesliga history to score in each of the opening 9, 10 & 11 matches of a season & is in line for a +2 upgrade, which would rank him 2nd behind Cristiano Ronaldo in the list of the highest rated, non-Icon, strikers in the game. It’s just a shame that we will unfortunately never get to see the TOTY card he so richly deserved.

ST: Erling Håland, Borussia Dortmund – 73 to 79

A hat trick on his Champions League debut & one on his Borussia Dortmund debut makes him deserving of an upgrade alone, but Erling Håland has proved to be as prolific as they come. Before his move to Borussia Dortmund, Håland had scored 8 goals in 6 Champions League appearances & 16 goals in 14 appearances in the Austrian Bundesliga for RB Salzburg, registering 5 hat tricks in the process.

His inevitable upgrade will take him to around the 79-rated mark, which means there’ll be BIG upgrades to his previously released special cards, most notably his 86-rated inform he received in TOTW 19. Should he continue his form for the rest of the season, he will undoubtably be in line for plenty more special cards, including what could potentially be a truly exceptional TOTS card.