Guess the Footballer Quiz

Bukayo Saka. Born on 5 September 2001, he was 18 — not 17 — when Arsenal beat Chelsea in the FA Cup final in August 2020, which remains his only FA Cup win. The clue should read 'Won the FA Cup at 18'.

Erling Haaland. His father Alfie Haaland played for Manchester City and Leeds United. Erling scored 36 league goals in his debut season.

Kylian Mbappé. The French forward joined Real Madrid from PSG in 2024 and is still chasing his first Champions League title — his only final was the 2020 defeat to Bayern Munich with PSG, and PSG went on to win the trophy in 2025 and 2026 after he had left. He has seven Ligue 1 titles (Monaco 2016-17 plus six with PSG) and his youth honour was the 2016 UEFA European Under-19 Championship; there is no 'Under-21 World Cup'. Clues should read: 'Seven-time Ligue 1 champion' and 'Won the 2016 European Under-19 Championship'.

Cristiano Ronaldo. He has won Champions League titles with Manchester United (2008) and Real Madrid (2014, 2016, 2017, 2018).

Rodri. The Manchester City and Spain midfielder won the Champions League with City in 2023, scoring the only goal of the final against Inter; his clubs are Villarreal, Atlético Madrid and Manchester City, never Real Madrid. He took the 2024 Ballon d'Or before suffering an ACL injury in September 2024.

Vinicius Jr. The Brazilian forward scored the winner in the 2022 Champions League final and has been one of the world's best players since 2022.

Jude Bellingham. He moved from Birmingham City to Dortmund at 17 and won the DFB-Pokal in May 2021 while still 17 — Dortmund never won the Bundesliga during his spell, as Bayern took the title in all three of his seasons. He then joined Real Madrid in 2023 for €103m (rising to around €134m) and won the Champions League in his first season.

Thibaut Courtois. The Belgium goalkeeper was outstanding in the 2022 Champions League final, repelling everything Liverpool threw at him to win Real Madrid the trophy. The clue should read 'Belgian goalkeeper'.

Neither name given is correct. Thiago Alcântara is a Spain international who never played in Serie A (Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Liverpool), and Casemiro has never played in Italy — he left Manchester United for Inter Miami in July 2026. The clue set best fits Rafinha (Rafael Alcântara), Thiago's brother and the son of 1994 World Cup winner Mazinho: he won three La Liga titles with Barcelona and played in Serie A on loan at Inter in 2017-18, though he has not played in Italy since.

Harry Kane. He joined Bayern Munich at the start of the 2023-24 season and became the Bundesliga's top scorer in his debut season.

Pedri. The Spain and Barcelona midfielder has been one of Europe's most sought-after young players since his emergence in 2020-21.

There is no clean answer to these clues: Manchester City's only Dutch player in the 2023-24 title-winning season was the defender Nathan Aké. Tijjani Reijnders was still at AC Milan that season and only joined City in June 2025; Matheus Nunes is Portuguese, Manuel Akanji is Swiss and Kevin De Bruyne is Belgian.

Lionel Messi. He won the World Cup with Argentina in Qatar 2022, completing his collection of every major honour in football.

Manuel Neuer. He came through Schalke 04 and played there as a senior professional from 2006 to 2011 — captaining the side in his final season — before joining Bayern Munich, and is widely regarded as the greatest goalkeeper of his generation. He retired from the Germany national team in August 2024.

Andrés Iniesta. He scored the winning goal in the 2010 World Cup final against the Netherlands and won Euro 2008 and Euro 2012. Barcelona was his only European club — he moved on to Vissel Kobe in Japan and later Emirates Club — so he never played for Valencia or Arsenal. (The Arsenal detail belongs to Cesc Fàbregas, the Valencia one to David Silva.)

Dani Alves. He won the Champions League three times with Barcelona (2009, 2011 and 2015) — never with Real Madrid — and his clubs were Bahia, Sevilla, Barcelona, Juventus, PSG, São Paulo and UNAM. He is the most decorated player in the game's history. He married the model Joana Sanz, not a pop star, so both the 'Real Madrid' and 'pop star' clues are wrong.

Gareth Bale. He won five Champions League titles with Real Madrid (2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2022) and scored iconic goals in the 2014 and 2018 finals. His senior clubs were Southampton, Tottenham (twice), Real Madrid and LAFC — never Cardiff City, despite being born in the city.

Luka Modrić. He won the Champions League six times with Real Madrid (2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022 and 2024) and took both the 2018 World Cup Golden Ball and the 2018 Ballon d'Or, ending Messi and Ronaldo's decade-long hold on the award. Born on 9 September 1985, he is now 40 and has played for AC Milan since joining on a free transfer in 2025.

Kevin De Bruyne. The Belgian creative midfielder has won multiple Premier League titles with Manchester City.

Alessandro Nesta. He won the Champions League with AC Milan in 2003 and 2007 and the World Cup with Italy in 2006. His clubs were Lazio, AC Milan, Montreal Impact and Chennaiyin FC — never PSG — and he has no twin brother; the footballing relative is his nephew, Gian Marco Nesta. The PSG and twin-brother clues do not belong in this profile.

Zlatan Ibrahimović — Swedish, not Dutch. He played for Malmö, Ajax, Juventus, Inter, Barcelona, AC Milan, PSG, Manchester United and LA Galaxy, but never for Real Madrid, and he never won the Champions League: UEFA has listed him among the best players never to lift it, and Ajax's last European Cup came in 1995, six years before he joined.

Didier Deschamps. He captained France to the 1998 World Cup and managed them to the 2018 title — one of only three men to win the trophy as player and manager. As a player he won the Champions League with Marseille (1993) and Juventus (1996), and played for Nantes, Marseille, Bordeaux (on loan), Juventus, Chelsea and Valencia. He never played for Real Madrid, so that clue should be removed.

Sadio Mané. He scored a hat-trick in 2 minutes 56 seconds for Southampton — the fastest in Premier League history.

Marc Overmars. He was part of the Ajax side that won the 1995 Champions League and went on to Arsenal and Barcelona — his clubs were Go Ahead Eagles, Willem II, Ajax, Arsenal and Barcelona. He never played in Italy, so the clue should read 'Played in England and Spain'.

Pelé (Edson Arantes do Nascimento). He won the World Cup in 1958, 1962, and 1970 and is Brazil's most famous sportsperson.

Diego Maradona. He won the World Cup in 1986 and led Napoli to two Serie A titles, in 1987 and 1990, the first in the club's history. They are no longer Napoli's only ones: the club won the Scudetto again in 2022-23 and 2024-25, four in total.

Johan Cruyff (born Hendrik Johannes Cruijff). He pioneered Total Football under Rinus Michels at Ajax and then Barcelona, won three consecutive European Cups (1971, 1972 and 1973) and three Ballons d'Or (1971, 1973 and 1974), and later managed Barcelona to the 1992 European Cup. Nothing supports the 'named after a Dutch beer' clue — his given names are ordinary Dutch ones — so that clue should be dropped.

Alfredo Di Stéfano. He scored in five consecutive European Cup finals for Real Madrid and is considered one of the greatest players ever.

Ferenc Puskás. He scored 84 goals in 85 international matches for Hungary and later played for Spain.

Bobby Charlton. He survived the 1958 Munich air disaster, won the World Cup with England in 1966 and the European Cup with Manchester United in 1968, scoring twice in the final and lifting the trophy as captain. He did not spend his whole career at one club: he left United in 1973 and went on to play for Preston North End and Waterford. 'Der Kaiser' was Franz Beckenbauer's nickname, never his.

Lev Yashin. He remains the only goalkeeper ever to win the Ballon d'Or, doing so in 1963.

Johan Neeskens. A combative box-to-box midfielder rather than a defender, he scored the opening penalty inside two minutes of the 1974 World Cup final — which the Netherlands lost 2-1 to West Germany — and won three consecutive European Cups with Ajax in 1971, 1972 and 1973.

Franz Beckenbauer. A sweeper/libero rather than a forward, he captained West Germany to the 1974 World Cup and managed them to the 1990 title — a feat achieved by three men in all, the others being Mário Zagallo (player in 1958 and 1962, manager in 1970) and Didier Deschamps (player in 1998, manager in 2018). Beckenbauer and Deschamps are the only two to have done it as captain and as manager. He won three consecutive European Cups with Bayern Munich in 1974, 1975 and 1976.

Giuseppe Meazza. He won the World Cup in both 1934 and 1938 but captained Italy only in 1938 — goalkeeper Gianpiero Combi was the 1934 captain — and he starred for Ambrosiana-Inter during both tournaments (he did later play for Juventus, in 1942-43). No Italian was the 1934 top scorer: that was Oldřich Nejedlý of Czechoslovakia with five goals. Silvio Piola won only the 1938 World Cup and was not its top scorer either — Brazil's Leônidas was, with seven.

George Best. He was named European Footballer of the Year in 1968 — the same year Manchester United won the European Cup.