Football Top Trumps — Daily Player Card Duel
How Football Top Trumps works
Five duels a day, and you choose which stat to fight on. You already have your card's numbers in front of you — the game is knowing which of them is unusually good. A defender with 500 appearances and four goals is not a bad card, it is a card with one obvious button.
Cards are drawn from 562 of our 766 players — the ones where all five numbers are real. Complete league appearances and goals, honours derived from 13 competitions, and a known date of birth. A zero from "we do not know" and a zero from "he won nothing" look identical on a card, so neither is allowed onto one.
| Stat | Wins on | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Appearances | higher | league only |
| Goals | higher | league only |
| Clubs | higher | — |
| Trophies | higher | squad member |
| Age | lower | younger wins |
Maintained by the PlayFutbol Data Team · First puzzle published September 2026 · Last audited September 14, 2026.
How to play in 3 steps
- 1
Read your card
Your footballer is face-up with all five stats. Theirs is face-down.
- 2
Choose a stat
Age goes to the younger player. Everything else goes to the bigger number.
- 3
Reveal
Both cards are shown. 20 points a win, 10 a draw, over 5 rounds.
How to choose better
- 1. Play the position, not the number. A goalkeeper's zero goals is not a weakness; his appearances almost always are a strength.
- 2. Clubs is the quiet winner. Most careers sit on two or three. A journeyman with six beats almost anyone on that row and nothing else.
- 3. Age is a real weapon. A 22-year-old loses every other row and takes this one outright. If your card is young and thin, that is the pick.
- 4. Trophies track big clubs, not greatness. A squad player at Bayern outscores a superb player at a mid-table side. That is what the row measures.
- 5. Goals are the trap. They are the row everyone reaches for, which is exactly why the opponent's card is often built to survive it.
A worked example
Your card is a 37-year-old forward: 555 league appearances, 271 goals, five clubs, two trophies. Goals look irresistible, and against most cards they win. But two trophies is weak, age is the worst row on the card, and five clubs is quietly excellent — very few careers pass four. If you suspect the opponent is a modern star, goals is a coin flip and clubs is close to a certainty. Pick the row your card is unusual on, not the row it is big on.
About the authors
Football Top Trumps is maintained by the PlayFutbol Data Team. Every figure on a card is gated: appearances and goals must be reconciled against Wikidata as complete, honours must be derived from verified club spells, and age must come from a real date of birth rather than an estimate. Two large numbers side by side is the easiest place on this site to mislead someone, which is why every card states that its appearances and goals are league-only.
Spot a wrong number? Email data@playfutbol.app
Frequently asked questions
What is Football Top Trumps?
A daily card duel. You get 5 footballer cards and so does the opponent. Each round you see your card, choose which of the five stats to compete on, and both cards are revealed.
Which stats can I pick?
Appearances, Goals, Clubs, Trophies, Age. Four go to the higher number — age goes to the lower one.
Why does age run backwards?
Because otherwise the game is "pick goals every time". A young card with modest numbers has to win on youth or not at all, and that asymmetry is what makes the choice worth making.
How is it scored?
20 points for a round won, 10 for a draw, up to 100. Winning more than half the rounds counts as taking the match and extends your streak.
Are the decks fair?
They are balanced, not random. Both decks are scored on a percentile basis across all five stats and re-drawn until they are within 15% of each other, so a round is usually winnable with the right pick and losable with the wrong one.
Can a round be unwinnable?
Occasionally, yes — about 3% of rounds have no stat that wins. That is the honest outcome of a card duel: sometimes your player is simply worse, and no amount of choosing fixes it.
Why do the numbers say "league only"?
Appearances and goals come from Wikidata's per-club qualifiers, which count league matches. Ronaldo's Real Madrid line is 292 games and 311 goals — his La Liga record, not the all-competitions figure. Two big numbers side by side is the easiest place to mislead someone, so the card carries the scope.
What does the trophy number mean?
How many of 13 tracked competitions the player was at the club for when it won. It is squad membership, not a medal count — a season spent injured still counts.
Which players can appear?
562 of our 766. A card needs all five numbers to be real: complete league appearances and goals, derived honours, and a known date of birth. A zero from "we do not know" and a zero from "he won nothing" look identical on a card, so neither is allowed.
Does everyone get the same deck?
Yes. A seeded generator deals every player worldwide the same ten cards for a given date.
Is there an archive?
Yes. Past decks 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
- Higher or Lower — the same comparison without the choice: one stat, named up front.
- Rank 'Em — order five players by a single stat.
- Futbol Top Five — name the top five for a ranking category.
Football Top Trumps is maintained by the PlayFutbol Data Team · 562 fully verified cards · Last audited September 14, 2026 · Report corrections at support@playfutbol.app.