First or Last — Daily Football Signing Order Game
How First or Last works
One club, four players who all wore its shirt, and one question: who came first? Most ranking games ask about a player. This one asks about a club — the order its squad turned over is a piece of history that only supporters usually carry.
87 clubs of the 201 in our database can field a board — the ones where we hold at least 4 players with distinct arrival years. Chelsea FC is the deepest, with 80 arrivals on record out of a 766-player pool.
Distinct years are not a nicety. Two players who signed the same summer cannot be ordered, so a board containing them would have no single right answer and would mark a correct reading wrong. Every board is built from four different years, and a player who joined a club twice appears once, on their first arrival.
Maintained by the PlayFutbol Data Team · First puzzle published September 2026 · Last audited September 14, 2026.
How to play in 3 steps
- 1
Read the club
One club and 4 players who all played for it.
- 2
Order the arrivals
Drag, or use the arrows. Earliest at the top.
- 3
Submit
25 points for each player in exactly the right slot. One submit, no undo.
How to order faster
- 1. Anchor the ends. One name usually feels clearly oldest and one clearly newest. Place those, then fight over the middle two.
- 2. Think about who they replaced. Squads turn over by position — if two of the four play the same role, they probably did not arrive together.
- 3. Age is a weak signal. A veteran signing arrives late in his career, so the oldest player is not necessarily the earliest arrival.
- 4. Managers come in waves. Signings cluster around a new appointment, which is why some boards have three arrivals inside four seasons.
- 5. The middle two decide it. Half the available points sit in the pair you are least sure about — check that swap before submitting.
A worked example
Beşiktaş: Atiba Hutchinson, Demba Ba, Gary Medel, Wout Weghorst. Weghorst is obviously the most recent — he is still playing at the top level. Hutchinson feels like the club servant, and he is: he arrived in 2013, a year before Ba. That leaves Medel, whose Turkish spell sits between the two, and the board resolves 2013, 2014, 2017, 2022. Anchor the ends, reason out the middle.
About the authors
First or Last is maintained by the PlayFutbol Data Team. Arrival years come from Wikidata club-spell statements, reconciled in September 2026 — before that pass 31.9% of our spell years were invented and the order of a career was frequently reversed. This game uses the ordering gate rather than the strict one, because no year is shown until the reveal: what must be right is the sequence.
Spot a wrong arrival year? Email data@playfutbol.app
Frequently asked questions
What is First or Last?
A daily football puzzle. One club and 4 players who all played for it — drag them into the order they arrived, earliest at the top.
How is it scored?
25 points for each player in exactly the right slot, up to 100. One submit, no undo.
How is it different from Rank 'Em?
Rank 'Em orders five players by a career number — goals, appearances, age. This orders four by a DATE, and all four belong to the same club, so it is a question about that club's history rather than about a statistic.
Can two players have arrived the same year?
Never on the same board. Two arrivals in one summer cannot be ordered, so a board containing them would have no single right answer — every board is built from four distinct years.
What if a player joined the club twice?
Only their first arrival counts, and they appear once. A second stint would otherwise put the same name in two slots.
What makes a board hard?
How tightly the arrivals are packed. Four signings spread across fifteen seasons is common sense; four inside four seasons is a memory test.
Which clubs can come up?
87 of the 201 in our database — the ones where we hold at least four players with distinct arrival years. Chelsea FC is the deepest with 80.
How do you know the years are right?
Every spell year was rebuilt from Wikidata in September 2026 — 31.9% of them had been invented. This game uses the ordering gate rather than the strict one, because the board never shows a year until the reveal: what has to be right is the sequence.
Is the club's full history included?
No — only the players in our database. It is four real arrivals in the real order, not a complete transfer history.
Does everyone get the same board?
Yes. A seeded generator gives every player worldwide the same club and the same four names for a given date.
Is there an archive?
Yes. Past boards are replayable and do not affect your daily streak.
Is it free?
Yes. No signup, no paywall, no ads inside the game.
Related daily football games
- Career Span — order five players by how long their careers lasted.
- Rank 'Em — order five players by a career stat instead of a date.
- Same Season — were these four ever team-mates?
First or Last is maintained by the PlayFutbol Data Team · 87 playable clubs · Last audited September 14, 2026 · Report corrections at support@playfutbol.app.