FIFA 17 Winter Upgrades will happen on FUT in February. Which players will be given better ratings and what you need to know about the winter upgrades?

Unlike other game modes in FIFA 17, the player attributes in FUT 17 are not constantly updated and adapted to the real performances of the respective professional players. In FUT 17, the players have cards with fixed attributes that remain constant throughout the year (except ones-to-watch cards). And Some players receive "in-form" cards (IF cards) during the season, but the stats of the regular cards are not changed. With one exception: get winter upgrades in February!

What are the FIFA 17 Winter Upgrades?

Twice a year the regular player cards are updated in FUT: When a new FIFA game is released (in autumn) and after the winter transfers, in February. These upgrades (and downgrades) are intended to reflect the real performance of the players who showed them on the pitch in the months before.

Each player who undergoes a winter upgrade receives a new regular card in FUT 17. These are the "normal" cards, which are distinguished in bronze, silver and gold: Gold cards are usually upgraded by 1-2 Coins. Silver and Bronze players receive upgrades of about 4 Coins. In rare cases, the improvements for bronze players can reach a whopping 15 Coins.

How do I get a winter upgrade card with improved rating?
Once the winter upgrade cards appear, they can be dragged into the packs. The only requirement is that the pack contains players. The "old" cards of the respective players are no longer to be found in the packs from this moment.
If you already have a card of a player that is upgraded, it remains unchanged. It is not updated automatically. If you want the card of the player with improved attributes, you must pull these from a pack. It is also possible to purchase the winter upgrade cards from other players in the transfer market.
In other words: There are co-exist two versions of the regular cards for the respective player in FUT: With the rating for the launch of FIFA 17 and with the ratings after the winter upgrade.

When will the FIFA 17 winter upgrades happen? - Release Time
The winter upgrade cards do not all appear simultaneously. They are published by EA Sports gradually in baskets. A look at the previous winter upgrades in FUT shows that more than 400 players will be upgraded, which will be released in four baskets during February. Official release dates are not yet available, but we predict it will start from these times:
03/02/2017 (Fri) 06:00pm UK

10/02/2017 (Fri) 06:00pm UK

17/02/2017 (Fri) 06:00pm UK

24/02/2017 (Fri) 06:00pm UK
In FIFA 16 the winter upgrades started on 05/02/2016.

 
Which players will receive a winter upgrade in FIFA 17?
This is not yet known. It is now hard to speculate. We will keep you up to date and keep this article up-to-date.

How do IF cards behave during winter upgrades?
The "in shape" cards are a little complicated with the winter upgrades.
Same Quality tier(eg. gold card to gold card): If the player's winter upgrade card is better or equal to the previous IF card (s), the IF cards are automatically upgraded. These should remain better than the regular cards.

An example of the special cards upgraded from Robert Lewandowski:
His regular launch card had a rating of 87. After the winter upgrade, Lewandowski received a 88 rated regular card. As one of his hero cards already had 88, it is increased to 89. His TOTW card, which with 89 was two Coins better than 87 old regular, turned 90 to be 2 Coins better than the new regular.

Note: as IF cards are not only TOTW cards, but also hero and other special cards.

Different Quality tier(eg. gold card to silver card): If a player changes his rank during the winter upgrade (eg from silver to gold) and the previous IF cards were silver, it remains unchanged. But the previous gold IF cards get upgraded according the new gold standard card(higher rating than the new regular card).  
Here we take Riyad Mahrez's upgraded in FIFA 16 as example for this:

His old regular card was 73 rated silver card, improved to 76 gold card in winter upgrade. After winter upgrades, his previous 74 rated first TOTW IF remains same, but his 77 rated second TOTW receives 3 Coins upgraded to 80, and third IF card reach 82 from 80.