TL;DR
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Footium launches Season 16 with Colombian prospects and legendary auctions.
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Player auctions for 95-99 potential operate under a bid-to-earn model.
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Over $1.5 million in rewards distributed and 3,200 clubs on-chain.
Footium launched Season 16 on 2026-02-19, introducing a cohort of Colombian prospects and a weekend of high-value “Legendary” auctions that opened 2026-02-20. The update arrives after the platform has already distributed more than $1.5M in rewards and aims to change scouting, market dynamics and token demand within the onchain football ecosystem.
The changes affect managers, secondary markets and the game’s token economy by concentrating elite assets in limited auctions and expanding the youth pipeline available to clubs.
Key figures and immediate mechanics
- Rewards distributed to date: $1.5M+
- Clubs onchain: 3.200
- Legendary player potential ratings: 95–99
- Legendary auction window opened 2026-02-20 13:00 UTC and runs through 2026-02-23
Colombian prospects widen the scouting universe
Season 16 adds a defined set of “Colombian Talents” as a new pool of high-potential prospects. According to Footium, several of those prospects are slotted into the game’s strongest tier and can appear only via the Legendary auction channel. The inclusion broadens player archetypes and forces managers to revisit academy investment and scouting priorities.
Season 16 has kicked off ⚽
Everything counts from day one 👊 pic.twitter.com/wDSPqSw6UN
— Footium (@Footium) February 19, 2026
For club owners, Colombian prospects change the calculus of long-term value generation. Managers must decide whether to allocate resources to minting and training youth from the new pool or to chase instant impact by bidding for already-elite assets. That trade-off affects squad construction, wage-like opportunity costs inside the game and the liquidity profile of player NFTs on the secondary market.
“uninterrupted access for managers,” the team said, highlighting a shift in season transitions that removes traditional maintenance downtime and keeps onboarding friction low for new entrants.
Legendary auctions, bid-to-earn and market impact
The Legendary Auctions represent the exclusive route to acquire players rated 95–99. Footium describes the auctions as operating on a bid-to-earn model: participants are rewarded for engagement even when they do not win a bid. That structure is designed to circulate value and reduce the tendency for assets to become locked with a small set of holders.
The auctions are expected to increase demand for the native $FOOT token and for ETH, which the platform uses for economic settlement. Securing a 95–99 rated player can materially alter a club’s onchain earnings profile and competitive position, amplifying upside for managers who successfully acquire and deploy such assets.
Infrastructure and user experience changes
Season 16 runs on the Arbitrum network and consolidates several UX improvements, most notably removing maintenance windows during season rollovers. Footium bills this as a way to provide continuous access and reduce onboarding latency for new managers. Each club remains a unique NFT with a badge, stadium and blockchain-recorded history, preserving verifiability of results and ownership.
The combination of an expanded academy pipeline and concentrated auction-driven issuance shifts where value accrues: toward managers who can both identify underpriced youth and participate effectively in auctions without overexposing treasury to volatility.
For investors and product teams, the immediate considerations are clear: monitor secondary-market liquidity for Legendary NFTs, the pace of $FOOT and ETH inflows tied to auction activity, and how academy minting volumes affect supply. The Legendary auctions remain open through 2026-02-23; their settlement and subsequent secondary-market trades will provide the earliest measurable signals of how Season 16 reshapes Footium’s economy.
