Honours Rank — Order Footballers by Trophy Count
How Honours Rank works
Five players. Order them by how much they have won. It sounds like a fame test and it is not one. Trophy counts follow squads, not talent — a squad player at a dominant club outranks a better footballer at a smaller one without either of them doing anything, and the ladder punishes anyone who ranks on reputation instead.
348 players holding three or more derived trophies, from 3 to 23 across 21 distinct counts and 21 trophy homes.
Two constraints make a board solvable rather than a coin flip. The five counts are always pairwise different, because two players on nine trophies cannot be ordered at all. And at most two of the five share a trophy home, which stops the board from collapsing into "spot the two Bayern players and put them on top".
What a trophy means here: the player was at the club in a season it won. Not that they played in the final, not that they were given a medal.
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 five
Names and nationalities only — no clubs, no counts.
- 2
Drag them into order
Most trophies at the top. The arrows work too.
- 3
Submit once
20 points for every player in the right slot.
How to rank better
- 1. Rank the clubs, not the players. Ten years at a dominant side beats a better career spent at mid-table ones. The question is where they were, not how good they were.
- 2. Domestic cups are the multiplier. Leagues come once a season; a club that also collects cups doubles a player's haul without ever winning Europe.
- 3. A long career at one big club outscores a nomadic elite one. Moving every three years means arriving after one cycle and leaving before the next.
- 4. Retired players are usually ahead. They finished collecting; the current squad members on the board have not.
- 5. Slots score independently, so commit to the ends. If you are confident about the top and bottom, place them and guess the middle — a wrong middle costs nothing extra.
A worked example
A board of Rabiot, Ferran Torres, Nkunku, Matip and Tomasson is not a board about who was best. Rabiot tops it on nine, almost all of them collected during a PSG side that won the league nearly every year he was there; Tomasson sits bottom on three despite a Champions League and a career most of the others would take. That inversion is the game — the ladder rewards knowing which squads were winning, and it is why fame is the worst available heuristic.
About the authors
Honours Rank is maintained by the PlayFutbol Data Team. Trophy counts are derived by crossing verified club spells with Wikidata season winners, replacing hand-entered lists that had among other things credited a teenager with a title won when he was twelve. Anything unverified is excluded from the pool rather than ranked.
Spot a wrong count? Email data@playfutbol.app
Frequently asked questions
What is Honours Rank?
A daily football game. 5 players, ordered by how many trophies they hold — league titles, domestic cups and European trophies together. Drag them into order and submit once.
How is it scored?
20 points for each player in the right slot, so a perfect ladder is 100. Slots are scored independently — getting the top two right still counts even if the bottom three are shuffled.
Does a trophy mean they played?
No. It means the player was at the club in a season it won. An injured season, a bench year and a January transfer all count. It is a squad record, and a bare number beside a name reads harder than it is — which is why the disclosure sits on the game itself, not only here.
Where do the counts come from?
Derived: verified club spells crossed with Wikidata season winners. Players whose career chronology could not be verified are excluded from the pool entirely rather than ranked on numbers we do not trust.
How big is the pool?
348 players holding three or more trophies, spanning 3 to 23 across 21 distinct counts.
Why three trophies as the floor?
Below three the counts bunch up. With most of the pool sitting on one or two, a ladder of five stops separating and becomes a coin flip.
Can two players have the same number?
Not on the same board. Two players on nine trophies cannot be ordered, so the five counts are always pairwise different — the same rule Rank ’Em and Higher or Lower use.
Is it not just "spot the Real Madrid player"?
That is the real design problem: trophy counts track squads more than players. So a board takes at most two players whose trophies came mostly from the same club, which forces the comparison across dynasties rather than within one. There are 21 distinct trophy homes in the pool.
Are international trophies included?
Yes — World Cup and European Championship wins count alongside club honours.
Does everyone get the same five?
Yes. A seeded generator gives every player worldwide the same ladder for a given date.
Is there an archive?
Yes, the last 30 days 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
- Trophy Cabinet — name the player from their honours alone.
- Rank 'Em — the same ladder, on goals and appearances.
- Career Span — order five by how long their careers lasted.
Honours Rank is maintained by the PlayFutbol Data Team · 348 ranked players · 21 distinct trophy counts · Last audited September 14, 2026 · Report corrections at support@playfutbol.app.