How to Play footbadle
footbadle is a free daily football guessing game made up of six separate modes. There is no "game over" screen — you keep guessing on each puzzle until you solve it, and the only score that matters is how few tries it took. New puzzles arrive every day and are the same for everyone, so you can compare your results with friends. This guide walks through every mode, how the feedback works, and how to read the clues like a seasoned supporter.
The basics
- One set of puzzles per day. Each mode gives you a single fresh challenge
every 24 hours, shared by all players worldwide.
- You cannot lose. Wrong guesses simply reveal more information. The aim is
to solve in as few guesses as possible and to keep your daily streak alive.
- No account needed. Your streaks, history and stats are saved privately on
your own device. Nothing personal is required to play.
- Eight leagues. Players and clubs are drawn from the top divisions of the
Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga, Ligue 1, the Primeira Liga, the Süper Lig and the Eredivisie.
Mode 1 — Guess the Player
A Wordle-style attribute grid. You guess a footballer, and each guess is scored across five columns: nationality, league, club, position and age.
- A green cell means that attribute exactly matches the mystery player.
- A yellow cell (where used) means you are close — for example the right
league but the wrong club, or a related position.
- An arrow on the age column tells you whether the target is older (↑) or
younger (↓) than your guess.
How to read it: open with a well-known, attribute-rich player to light up as many columns as possible. If the league turns green but the club does not, your next guess should stay in that league. Use the age arrow to narrow a generation, then combine position and nationality to close in.
Mode 2 — Immaculate Grid
A 3×3 grid. Each row and each column carries a clue — a club, a country, an honour or a statistical milestone. Every square sits at the intersection of two clues, and you must name a player who satisfies both (for example, "played for Arsenal" × "capped by France").
- Each player can be used only once across the whole grid, so spend your
obvious answers carefully.
- Rarer, more unique answers score better in the "uniqueness" tie-breaker if the
mode tracks it.
How to read it: fill the squares you are certain of first, then attack the hardest intersection last with whatever well-travelled players you have left.
Mode 3 — Transfer Trail
A mystery player's career is revealed as a trail of club transfers — the clubs, the years and sometimes the fees — shown step by step. Identify the player from their journey.
How to read it: the shape of a career is a fingerprint. A big-money move at 18, a loan spell, then a marquee transfer points to a specific kind of profile. Pay attention to the selling and buying clubs and the era; the combination is often unique to one footballer.
Mode 4 — Stadium Spotter
You are shown a photograph of a famous ground and must name the stadium or the club that calls it home. Each miss reveals a new hint.
How to read it: look for tells — stand architecture, roof shape, the colour of the seats, a distinctive single-tier end or a known capacity. Our stadium guides cover the grounds that show up most often.
Mode 5 — Flag XI
A starting eleven is laid out in formation as country flags. Work out the club from the nationalities and the shape.
How to read it: identify the formation first (a back four versus a back three changes everything), then use the rarer nationalities as anchors. A specific cluster of countries in specific positions usually narrows you to one squad.
Mode 6 — Odd One Out
Four players are shown. Three share a hidden trait — same nation, same club history, same position, same shirt number, the same anything — and one does not. Tap the player who breaks the pattern.
How to read it: test one hypothesis at a time. Find the strongest link between any two players, check whether a third fits it, and the outlier reveals itself.
Building and keeping a streak
Solving any mode keeps that mode's streak alive for the day. Because puzzles reset daily, consistency beats perfection — a two-guess solve and a six-guess solve both extend your streak. Many players run all six modes back to back as a daily routine.
Where to go next
- New here? Start with Guess the Player, the most intuitive mode.
- Want to get sharper? Read our mode-by-mode
- Curious about the data and credits behind the puzzles? See
About footbadle and our Attributions page.
Ready? Jump in and play today's puzzles.