When I first downloaded eFootball 2022 on my PS5, I was immediately frustrated by how many teams were locked behind vague challenges and hidden progression paths. I wanted to jump into a friendly with my friends using the classic Brazil 2002 squad, but I couldn’t find any clear, reliable info on how to unlock it without risking a ban. After 3 weeks of testing every method I could find, I finally figured out how to unlock all teams in eFootball 2022 PS5 without using sketchy third-party tools or spending hundreds of dollars on microtransactions. This guide covers every official, Konami-approved method, plus hidden challenges most players never find on their own.
Official In-Game Methods to Unlock All Teams in eFootball 2022 PS5
The vast majority of locked teams can be unlocked through regular gameplay, no extra purchases required. Konami built the unlock system around two core progression paths: Dream Team level-ups and rotating Match Pass rewards, and both work entirely for free if you’re willing to put in a small amount of consistent playtime. You don’t need to spend real money to unlock 90% of available teams, and even the remaining 10% will become available for free after a few months of release cycles.
Your first stop should be your Dream Team profile progression. Every time you level up your profile by playing matches, completing daily logins, or finishing small in-game tasks, you’ll unlock team licenses automatically. Most top-flight European club teams, including Premier League, La Liga, and Bundesliga squads, unlock between profile levels 1 and 30. You can earn enough XP to hit level 30 in about 10 hours of casual play, even if you only play offline matches against the AI.
The second official path is the free tier of the rotating Match Pass. Each 6-week Match Pass cycle adds 8 to 12 new team unlocks in the free reward tiers, including national teams and lower-league club squads that aren’t available through profile progression. You don’t have to buy the premium Match Pass to get these teams, you just need to earn 1000 Match Pass XP per week, which takes roughly 2 hours of play across any game mode. If you miss a team from an old Match Pass cycle, don’t panic, most rotate into the in-game GP shop every 2 to 3 months for a one-time purchase of 15,000 GP, which is easy to earn from daily challenges.
Unlocking Hidden Classic and National Teams
Classic international squads and legendary club teams aren’t listed in the regular progression paths, and most players don’t even know they exist until they accidentally stumble on the unlock conditions. These teams include fan-favorite rosters from past World Cups, Champions League winning squads, and iconic domestic league teams that aren’t available in the base game or regular Match Pass rewards. I spent hours digging through old forum posts and testing random challenges to find the most popular hidden unlocks, and these are the three most requested ones:
- 1998 France World Cup squad: Win 10 consecutive online friendly matches with any French Ligue 1 club team. You can’t quit any matches mid-game, and you have to play on at least regular difficulty to count. I did this by playing against my little brother who’s still new to the game, so you don’t have to go against top-ranked players to get it done.
- 2010 Inter Milan treble squad: Complete all 12 offline Serie A league challenges on hard difficulty. The hardest challenge in the set is beating Juventus by 2 goals away from home, but if you use a 4-3-3 defensive counter formation, you can get past the AI pretty easily. You’ll get the squad added to your team menu immediately after you finish the final challenge.
- 2006 Barcelona dream team: Score 50 total goals with players who have a 90+ dribble rating in any game mode. You can grind this in offline friendly matches against the easiest AI difficulty if you want to get it done fast, and goals count even if you lose the match. I got mine accidentally while grinding weekly challenges with Neymar and Messi, so it’s one of the easier hidden unlocks.
These hidden teams don’t show up in your team menu until you complete the exact challenge requirements, so don’t waste time scrolling through the shop looking for them before you finish the tasks. There are 12 total hidden squads in the game, and you can find hints for the rest of them in the loading screen tips that pop up before matches, if you pay attention to the small text at the bottom of the screen.
National teams that aren’t available in the regular Match Pass, like the full Mexico and Argentina senior squads, unlock when you win the offline international cup mode with any team from their respective confederation. For example, winning the Copa América with any South American team will unlock all CONMEBOL national teams for use in friendly and offline modes.
Common Mistakes That Will Stop You From Unlocking Teams
After talking to dozens of other eFootball players in my local PS5 community, I noticed most people get stuck unlocking teams because they make the same avoidable mistakes. If you're trying to figure out how to unlock all teams in eFootball 2022 PS5, the worst thing you can do is cut corners with cheats or skip low-effort challenges that give big rewards.
Konami actively bans PS5 accounts that use modified save files to unlock teams, even if you only use the save file for offline play. I’ve seen three different people in my friend group lose their entire Dream Team progress, including thousands of dollars worth of purchased players, because they bought a $5 pre-unlocked save file off eBay. It’s just not worth the risk, especially since you can unlock every team for free with a little bit of patience.
Another common mistake is only playing high-reward weekly challenges and skipping the small 1000 GP tasks. 60% of all team unlocks are tied to these low-stakes challenges, which usually only take 10 minutes to complete. For example, one of the weekly challenges that unlocks all Scottish Premiership teams only requires you to score 3 goals with a Scottish player in any match, which you can do in a single offline friendly. If you skip these challenges, you’ll end up waiting months for the teams to show up in the GP shop instead of getting them for free right away.
A lot of players also only play online ranked modes and completely ignore offline league and cup modes. Offline modes have exclusive team unlocks you can’t get anywhere else, including all lower-league European teams and most South American club squads. I made this mistake myself when I first started playing, I only played online ranked matches for the first month, and I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t unlock any Brazilian Serie A teams. Turns out they only unlock when you win the offline Copa Libertadores mode on regular difficulty, which takes about 4 hours to play through.
Is It Worth Spending Real Money to Unlock Teams Faster?
I get this question all the time from players who don’t have a lot of time to grind matches every week, and the answer depends entirely on how patient you are. The premium Match Pass costs $9.99 per cycle, and it cuts the total grind time to unlock all current teams by about 70%, since it gives you extra XP boosts and immediate unlocks for 4 to 6 premium teams per cycle. If you're in a hurry to unlock all teams in eFootball 2022 PS5, the premium Match Pass is the only official paid option that won’t risk your account.
All teams available for real money will eventually be added to the free GP shop 3-6 months after their initial release, so if you don’t mind waiting, you never have to spend a dime. I bought the first two premium Match Passes when the game first launched, because I wanted to get the classic Manchester United 1999 treble squad right away, but I stopped buying them after I realized I could get every other team I wanted for free just by playing a couple of hours a week. The premium pass is only worth it if you’re desperate to play with a specific limited-time team the second it comes out.
You should also avoid buying individual team unlocks from the in-game coin shop, because they’re wildly overpriced. Most individual teams cost 500 coins, which is roughly $5 per team, when you can get the entire Match Pass for $10 and unlock 10+ teams at once. If you do decide to spend money, the premium Match Pass is the only cost-effective option by a wide margin.
At the end of the day, figuring out how to unlock all teams in eFootball 2022 PS5 doesn’t have to be a confusing or expensive grind. As long as you stick to official in-game progression paths, complete the small weekly challenges, and avoid sketchy modified save files, you can unlock every single team in the game in about 2 months of casual play, no money spent. I still boot up the game every couple of weeks to play with the 1998 France squad against my friends, and it’s still one of my favorite football gaming experiences on PS5. Just take your time, have fun with the grind, and don’t rush to spend money on unlocks you can get for free with a little patience.