How is Football Connections different from NYT Connections?

Football Connections uses 16 footballers instead of words. Group them into 4 hidden categories based on what they share — same club, same country, same award, or other connections. It is entirely football-themed with a new game daily.

Is there a free daily football connections puzzle?

Yes. Football IQ publishes a new Connections game regularly at football-iq.app/play/connections. Free to play in your browser with no account needed.

How do you play Football Connections?

Select 4 footballers from a grid of 16 that share a hidden connection and submit your guess. Correct groups reveal with a colour. You have 4 mistakes before the game ends. Each group is labelled by difficulty, from easiest to hardest.

Connections

From the archive · Tue 6 Oct

How to play

Pick four players that share a link.

Data correct as of 5 October 2026

What is Connections?

Football Connections gives you sixteen footballers and four hidden categories, and asks you to work out which four belong together. The difficulty is not in knowing the players; it is that several of them plausibly fit more than one group until you spot the category that only four of them truly satisfy. Every board has exactly one clean solution.

How to play Connections

A grid of 16 footballers is displayed. Find the 4 groups of 4 that share a hidden connection.
Select 4 players and submit your guess. Correct groups are revealed with a colour.
Each group is labelled by difficulty, from easiest to hardest.
You can make 4 mistakes. Each wrong guess uses one.
The game ends when all groups are found or you run out of mistakes.

Connections strategy

Resist the first group you see. The board is built so that an obvious-looking four contains one player who actually belongs elsewhere, and spending a life on it early leaves you no room later. The stronger opening is to look for the category with the least overlap — usually something specific like a single club's academy or one tournament squad — and clear that first. Once four players are off the board, the remaining twelve get dramatically easier.

Start with the group you're most confident about to avoid wasting mistakes.
Connections can be anything: same club, same nationality, same shirt number, same award.
If 3 players obviously fit, look carefully at which 4th player completes the group.

Connections: frequently asked questions

How is Football Connections different from NYT Connections?: Football Connections uses 16 footballers instead of words. Group them into 4 hidden categories based on what they share — same club, same country, same award, or other connections. It is entirely football-themed with a new game daily.
Is there a free daily football connections puzzle?: Yes. Football IQ publishes a new Connections game regularly at football-iq.app/play/connections. Free to play in your browser with no account needed.
How do you play Football Connections?: Select 4 footballers from a grid of 16 that share a hidden connection and submit your guess. Correct groups reveal with a colour. You have 4 mistakes before the game ends. Each group is labelled by difficulty, from easiest to hardest.

More daily football games

Football Connections is a daily puzzle game inspired by NYT Connections. Group 16 footballers into 4 hidden categories. A new football connections puzzle every day.

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