EA FC 26 Journey of Nations Guide: How to Unlock the Free 97 Maradona Fast (August 2026)

Quick Answer (TLDR): Journey of Nations is a five-part objective campaign in EA FC 26 that rewards a free, untradeable 97-rated Diego Maradona (Icon CAM). You earn it by completing five continent Completionist groups — each one hands you a 95-rated ICON: Gerd Müller (Europe), Carlos Alberto (South America), Jay-Jay Okocha (Africa), Saeed Al Owairan (Asia & Oceania) and Hugo Sánchez (North America). Once all five are in your club, you play one match with all five in your starting XI and Maradona is yours. It's a grind — roughly 15 matches per continent and 100+ individual tasks — but the coin cost is near-zero if you already own nation fodder, and the objectives stay live through the end of the FC 26 cycle. Squad Battles is the fastest, most reliable mode. The old co-op cheese is patched — you now have to complete everything legitimately.

Every year has one "free Icon" objective worth clearing your schedule for, and in EA FC 26 it's Journey of Nations. Six untradeable Icons — five 95-rated continental legends plus a 97 Maradona on top — for zero coins if your club is deep enough. That's why r/fut and r/EASportsFC have been full of "how do I actually finish this fast" threads this week as Season 10 pre-season kicks in.

The catch is scope. This is one of the longest objective chains EA has ever shipped: over 100 tasks spread across five continents, most requiring specific nationalities, goal types, and modes. Grind it blind and you'll waste days. This guide gives you the exact reward chain, the fastest completion route, realistic squad costs, and an honest verdict on whether a 97 Maradona is worth your time six weeks before FC 27. All card and structure data is verified against EA's official Season 10 listing and the FUT.GG / RealSport objective databases.

---

What Is Journey of Nations in EA FC 26?

Journey of Nations is a season-long objective campaign built around international football, split into five continental chapters: North America, Asia & Oceania, Africa, South America, and Europe. Each chapter is a stack of nation-specific tasks — score with players from a given country, win in a given mode, hit a specific goal type — that build toward a single Completionist reward for that continent.

The structure is deliberately gated: you don't get Maradona from any one continent. You get one 95-rated ICON per continent, and only when all five are sitting in your club do you unlock the final step for the headline card.

Here's the full reward chain:

Continent	Completionist Reward ICON	Rating
Europe	Gerd Müller	95
South America	Carlos Alberto	95
Africa	Jay-Jay Okocha	95
Asia & Oceania	Saeed Al Owairan	95
North America	Hugo Sánchez	95
Final (all five in XI)	Diego Maradona	97

Each continent Completionist also throws in extras on the side — untradeable cosmetic items, packs, and token bundles (the Europe group, for example, hands over a Müller 95, plus National Pride player packs and 100 tokens). Every reward here — the five 95 ICONs and the 97 Maradona — is untradeable: you can't pack them, buy them, or sell them. The only route is the grind.

Per FUT.GG's objective tracker, "all five continent Objective groups will remain active through the end of the FC 26 cycle" — so there is no weekly reset pressure on this one, unlike the FUTTIES token store. You can chip away at it between promos.

How Do You Unlock the 97 Maradona?

The final unlock is refreshingly simple once the hard part is done. As RealSport's guide puts it:

"Play a single match while having all five in your starting eleven, and Diego Maradona is yours." — RealSport101

So the real work is the five Completionist groups. You do not need to complete every optional task in a continent — only the tasks that feed the Completionist objective for that region. Work through them in whatever order your menu shows; there's no forced sequence.

Three things determine how painful this is:

• Nationality coverage. Each continent wants goals, assists, and wins from players of specific nations. The deeper your nation coverage, the fewer squads you rebuild.
• Mode requirements. Most tasks clear in Squad Battles, but a handful require Rush and Live Events, so you can't do it 100% offline.
• Volume. Community trackers estimate ~15 matches per continent group, and 100+ tasks total across the campaign. That's the number to respect when you plan your time.

What Is the Fastest Way to Complete Journey of Nations?

Play everything in Squad Battles on the lowest difficulty that still counts, and build one hybrid squad per continent that satisfies multiple tasks at once. That's the whole strategy in one sentence — here's how to execute it.

Use Squad Battles, not online. As one widely-shared guide notes, "Squad Battles will remain the best mode to do it, as they're more predictable than online modes." You control the difficulty, the AI won't punish you, and goals/assists come easy. Only drop into Rivals, Champs, Rush, or Live Events for the specific tasks that demand them.

Stack requirements in a single match. This is the biggest time-saver. Most tasks just want goals, assists, wins, or appearances from a nationality — so build a squad where 7–8 starters share the continent and overlapping nations. A single South American XI packed with Brazilians, Argentines, and Colombians can tick three or four nation tasks per game instead of one. Design the squad around the task list, not around chemistry.

Fill nation gaps with cheap fodder. The friction is always the awkward nations — you rarely own a bench of Saudi Arabian or CONCACAF players. Rather than grind a nation you'll never use again, buy a few cheap bronze/silver or low-rated gold players from that nation off the market to plug the task, then move on. This is where a small coin buffer turns a multi-day slog into an afternoon.

Use Evolutions to reshape players. If a task wants a specific position or playstyle from a nation, a free or cheap Evolution can convert a player you already own to fit — cheaper than hunting a new card.

The co-op cheese is dead. Earlier in the cycle, players split tasks via co-op. That's been patched: "The co-op cheese method has been patched; you must now complete all requirements legitimately." You can still play the final single match (all five ICONs in your XI) in co-op or a friendly, but the continental grind is solo-legit now.

How Much Does Journey of Nations Cost in Coins?

Near-zero if your club is deep — realistically 30,000–80,000 coins if you have to buy nation fodder. This is the important honest number: Journey of Nations is not an SBC. You are not sacrificing 300k of fodder. The "cost" is entirely in the nation-specific players you don't already own.

A rough breakdown of where coins actually go:

• Common nations (Brazil, France, Germany, England, Spain): ~0 coins — you already own plenty.
• Awkward nations (Saudi Arabia, USA/Mexico depth, smaller African/Asian sides): a handful of 150–2,000 coin bronze/silver/low-gold cards each. Buy the cheapest player who satisfies the task.
• Evolutions to reshape a player to fit: free to a few thousand coins for a paid Evo slot.

Add it up and most players spend well under 100k total — and a stacked club spends nothing. Compare that to the ~300,000-coin Cannavaro Icon SBC or ~659,000 Vitinha SBC from FUTTIES Team 4, and six free Icons for a fraction of the cost is one of the best value plays left in the season. If you're short on the fodder to build five clean continental squads back-to-back, topping up your coin balance is the difference between finishing this in a weekend and dragging it across two weeks.

Is Journey of Nations Worth It in August 2026?

Yes — if you still play FC 26 daily. Skip it if you've already mentally moved to FC 27. With the FC 27 closed beta live and the full cycle winding down, every late-season reward has to answer one question: will you actually use it before the servers reset?

Reasons to grind it now:

• Six untradeable Icons for near-zero coins — the best raw-value objective left in the game.
• 97 Maradona is an elite CAM that walks into almost any squad for your remaining FC 26 games (Rivals, Champs, Squad Battles).
• No expiry pressure — it runs to the end of the cycle, so you can spread it across the pre-season weeks.
• The five 95 ICONs are strong squad pieces in their own right, not just checkboxes.

Reasons to skip:

• None of it carries to FC 27. These are FC 26 club items. If your goal is a head start next cycle, your coins and hours are better spent preparing for FC 27.
• 100+ tasks is a real time sink. If you play a few games a week, you may not finish before you stop caring.

The tiebreaker is simple: if you're grinding Rivals and Champions between now and FC 27, a free 97 Maradona is a no-brainer. If some of those continental tasks require online wins your team can't currently get, a FUT Champions boost clears the win-gated objectives while you focus on the offline grind.

### Finish Journey of Nations faster

Skip the fodder-hunting slog and the win-gated tasks:

- EA FC 26 Coins — fast & safe — build all five continental squads without grinding for nation fodder · best rate, no ban risk

- FUT Champions Boost — clear the win-based Journey tasks and hit Elite · pro players

- All EA FC 26 services — coins, boosts and more

Journey of Nations vs the FUTTIES Grind: Where Should Your Time Go?

With Season 10 pre-season live, you're juggling three grinds at once: Journey of Nations, the FUTTIES Team 4 cards, and the pre-season token store. Priority order for a player with limited hours:

• Journey of Nations first — no expiry, six free Icons, and the tasks double as normal games you'd play anyway.
• Pre-season token store second — the Va Va Voom and Carpet Football Evolutions are strong and time-limited.
• FUTTIES SBCs last — high coin cost, and untradeable so late in the cycle.

Because Journey of Nations has no reset clock, it's the one you can safely background — knock out a continent whenever you'd otherwise be playing Squad Battles for rewards anyway.

FAQ

How do you get the free 97 Maradona in EA FC 26? Complete all five Journey of Nations continent Completionist groups — Europe, South America, Africa, Asia & Oceania, and North America. Each rewards a 95-rated ICON (Müller, Carlos Alberto, Okocha, Al Owairan, and Hugo Sánchez). Once you own all five, play one match with all of them in your starting XI to unlock the 97 Maradona.

Is the Journey of Nations Maradona tradeable? No. Maradona, the five 95 ICONs, and the cosmetic rewards are all untradeable. You cannot pack, buy, or sell any of them — the only way to earn them is by completing the objectives.

When does Journey of Nations expire in EA FC 26? All five continent objective groups remain active through the end of the FC 26 cycle, so there's no weekly reset. With FC 27 approaching, aim to finish before the FC 26 servers wind down rather than leaving it to the last day.

What's the fastest way to complete Journey of Nations? Play in Squad Battles for predictable, low-pressure games, and build one hybrid squad per continent that satisfies multiple nation tasks in a single match. Buy cheap bronze/silver fodder for awkward nations rather than grinding them, and use Evolutions to reshape players you already own. A few tasks require Rush and Live Events, so you can't do it fully offline.

Can you still co-op cheese Journey of Nations? No — the co-op shortcut for the continental tasks has been patched, so you must complete them legitimately. You can, however, still play the final "all five ICONs in your XI" match in co-op or a friendly.

How much does Journey of Nations cost in coins? Near-zero if your club already has strong nation coverage. If you need to buy fodder for awkward nations, most players spend well under 100,000 coins total — a fraction of the ~300k+ Cannavaro or ~659k Vitinha Icon SBCs from FUTTIES Team 4.