Lookout for talents.
Arka Sarkar | Staff Writer
Published: Jun 4, 2026 2:15 pm 
The new football game GOALS is live on PC and console, and your team will draw plenty of your attention. When you begin your journey, the squad you get will be pretty basic. There will be a handful of items of Uncommon rarity and above, and most of your cards will have low ratings.
However, there’s an interesting growth system that allows you to improve your cards over time.
Player training in GOALS explained
Every player in GOALS is unique. If you have a player, nobody else in the world will have them. Cards have different rarities; they begin with Basic and go beyond Uncommon and above. The higher the rarity, the better the starting stats. However, even the most basic of cards can improve to become something special.
If you check out the card above, you’ll notice an XP meter. Every card has this, but the value of the XP meter differs. When you use a card in a complete game, it gains XP. The rate of XP gain might differ, but they will always get something if they’re in the playing squad.
Once the card earns enough XP to meet a certain threshold, you get the chance to upgrade it. Upgrades not only improve the overall rating of the card, but they also boost certain stats. The stats are decided at random, but your players will upgrade significantly as you keep playing with them.
Basic players grow the fastest since their XP thresholds are low. In comparison, Uncommon cards and above take a lot more time to complete their training and reach the next level. However, there’s another important factor to consider.
If you look to the bottom left of a card, you’ll find a small lightning icon with a number written beside it. This number determines how much you can train the card. The training value begins at one and ends at eight, with the highest being the best. If you have a low rarity card with high training value, it will still be eligible for upgrades and improve its rarity as well. This also means that you shouldn’t immediately waste a card because it’s of low rarity.
There’s another number under the familiar position of your card, which determines their age. Players in GOALS age with time, and they retire after they have played enough. Naturally, you’ll also want to keep cards that begin at lower ages. That way, you can develop and play them for a longer time (since they take longer to retire).
That’s all you need about player training and GOALS. Yes, it takes time to help a player reach their potential (especially if they’re of lower tier). However, prioritize using cards with higher potential since they can become a backbone for your team.
