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Football Connections

Football Connections is a daily puzzle game where you group 16 footballers into 4 hidden categories. Inspired by NYT Connections and built for football fans, each puzzle challenges you to find the link between players — whether it is a shared club, nationality, award, or something more creative.

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16 footballers. 4 hidden groups. Can you find them all?

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How to play Football Connections

Study the grid

You are presented with a 4x4 grid of 16 footballer names. Four hidden groups of 4 players are mixed together.

Select 4 players

Tap or click 4 players you think share a connection. The connection could be a shared club, nationality, award, transfer destination, or something less obvious.

Submit your guess

If all 4 players belong to the same group, the group is revealed and labelled by difficulty, from easiest to hardest.

Find all 4 groups

You can make 4 mistakes. Each wrong guess uses one. Find all 4 groups before you run out to complete the game.

Tips and strategy

Start with the easiest group

If you can spot an obvious connection (e.g. 4 players who all played for Barcelona), lock it in first. Every correct group makes the remaining grid smaller and easier to read.

Watch for misdirection

Some players fit multiple possible categories. A player who played for both Real Madrid and Manchester United could belong to either group. Think about which grouping accounts for all 4 players.

Use the difficulty labels as a guide

The easiest group is the most straightforward. The hardest is designed to be tricky: expect wordplay, obscure shared stats, or lateral connections.

Think beyond clubs

Connections can be based on shirt numbers, transfer fees, international caps, managers, award winners, birth cities, or creative themes. Do not assume every group is about which club a player played for.

Save your mistakes

You only have 4 wrong guesses before the game ends. If you are not confident, keep looking rather than guessing. A careful approach often reveals the hardest group that seemed impossible at first.

Types of connections

Football Connections games use a wide variety of connection types. Here are some examples of the categories you might encounter:

Shared Club

Players who all played for AC Milan

Same Nationality

Players who all represented Brazil

Award Winners

Ballon d'Or winners from the 2010s

Creative Theme

Surnames that are also animals

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Frequently asked questions

What is Football Connections?
Football Connections is a daily puzzle game where you are given 16 footballer names and must sort them into 4 groups of 4 based on a hidden connection. Connections can be anything — shared clubs, nationalities, awards, shirt numbers, or something more creative. It is inspired by the NYT Connections format but built entirely for football fans.
How do you play Football Connections?
Select 4 footballers from a grid of 16 that you think share a hidden connection, then submit your guess. If you are correct, the group is revealed and labelled by difficulty, from easiest to hardest. You can make 4 mistakes. Find all 4 groups before you run out to win.
Is Football Connections free?
Yes. Football Connections is completely free to play in your browser at football-iq.app/play/connections. No account or app download is required. A new game is published regularly.
How is Football Connections different from NYT Connections?
NYT Connections uses words and general knowledge categories. Football Connections uses 16 real footballers and the connections are always football-themed — shared clubs, international teammates, transfer histories, awards, and more. The core mechanic (find 4 groups of 4) is the same, but every puzzle is crafted for football fans.
What kinds of connections appear in Football Connections?
Connections range from straightforward (players who all played for the same club) to deviously tricky (players whose surnames are also cities, or who all scored in a specific final). Groups are labelled from easiest to hardest, and every game has a mix of difficulty levels.
Can I play old Football Connections puzzles?
Football IQ Pro subscribers can access the full archive of past Connections games. Free players get the latest game every time they visit.
Is there a Football Connections app?
Yes. Football Connections is one of 11 game modes in the Football IQ app, available free on the App Store. The app includes additional modes like Career Path, Transfer Guess, Timeline, and more.

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