Guess the Year — Daily Football Transfer Dating Game
How Guess the Year works
Two crests, one arrow, no name. When did this move happen? It is a different question from "who was it" — you are placing a transfer in football's timeline, which is why anything within 2 years still scores.
934 transfers spanning 1956 to 2026, derived from consecutive club spells across a 766-player database. Every one identifies exactly one player, so a plausible wrong guess is never secretly a second right answer.
This game could not have existed a week before it shipped. Until September 2026, 31.9% of spell years in our data were invented — a game that prints a year as the answer would have been marking people wrong against fiction. Only players whose chronology is verified against Wikidata are used, and overlapping spells are skipped because a loan is not a transfer.
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 move
Two crests and an arrow. The player is not named.
- 2
Slide to a year
You are told earlier or later, and each guess uncovers a clue about the player.
- 3
Land the era
Within 2 years scores. Exact on the first guess is 100.
How to date a transfer
- 1. Read the pairing, not the clubs. Two English clubs could be any decade. An English club and a Saudi one is almost certainly the last few years.
- 2. Open wide, then halve. Five guesses over seventy years is not enough for a blind search — spend the first one in the middle and let earlier/later do the work.
- 3. The decade clue arrives on guess three. If you are lost, spending two guesses to buy it is a legitimate strategy.
- 4. Clubs move between tiers. A crest you associate with the Premier League may have been in the Championship when the move happened.
- 5. Do not stop at close. A near miss does not end the round, and converting it to exact is worth 30 more points.
A worked example
Flamengo to Real Madrid. The direction dates it immediately: Brazilian teenagers going straight to Madrid is a modern pattern, so start in the late 2010s rather than the middle of the range. "Later" on a 2015 guess narrows it to a five-year window, and the nationality clue confirms what the crests already implied. Two guesses in, you are choosing between three years rather than seventy.
About the authors
Guess the Year is maintained by the PlayFutbol Data Team. Transfer years come from Wikidata club-spell statements, reconciled in September 2026; the pass that made this game possible found that 418 of 1,311 comparable spell years had been invented. Only careers graded "verified" are used here, and a loan — recorded as overlapping spells at two clubs — is never presented as a transfer.
Spot a wrong year? Email data@playfutbol.app
Frequently asked questions
What is Guess the Year?
A daily football puzzle. You see one transfer — club A to club B, with the player's name withheld — and slide to the year you think it happened. 5 guesses.
Do I have to be exact?
No. Anything within 2 years scores, because the game is about placing a move in its era rather than memorising dates. An exact first guess is 100 points; being one year out is 70.
What feedback do I get?
Earlier or later, and whether you landed inside the two-year band. A near miss does not end the round — you can still convert it into an exact answer with a guess to spare.
What are the clues?
Each spent guess uncovers one: nationality, then position, then the decade, then the first letter of the surname. A round gets easier as it goes rather than just shorter.
How is this different from Transfer Guess?
Transfer Guess shows the clubs AND the year and asks who moved. This shows the clubs and asks when. Same index, opposite half of the row — one is recognition, the other is placing a move in football's timeline.
How far back do the transfers go?
1956 to 2026. 934 moves are in the pool, all of them uniquely identifying a single player so a reasonable wrong guess is never secretly a second right answer.
Are loans included?
No. A loan shows up in the data as the player being at both clubs at once, and "moved from A to B" is wrong when he was still A's player. Overlapping spells are skipped.
How do you know the years are right?
Every spell year was rebuilt from Wikidata in September 2026 — before that, 31.9% of them were invented. This game only uses players graded "verified", because the year here is the answer, printed and scored.
Does everyone get the same transfer?
Yes. A seeded generator gives every player worldwide the same move for a given date.
Is there an archive?
Yes. Past transfers are replayable and do not affect your daily streak.
Why is the slider a range rather than a text box?
Because typing a year invites precision the game does not ask for. A slider makes the era the unit of thought, which is what the two-year band rewards.
Is it free?
Yes. No signup, no paywall, no ads inside the game.
Related daily football games
- Transfer Guess — the other half of the same row: the year is given, name the player.
- Football Timeline — order one player's clubs by date.
- Career Path — follow a chain of crests and name the player.
Guess the Year is maintained by the PlayFutbol Data Team · 934 verified transfers · 1956–2026 · Last audited September 14, 2026 · Report corrections at support@playfutbol.app.