Mystery Player — guess the secret footballer

1. Name any player. Type any footballer from a top-club squad. There is no penalty for a wild first guess — it is information either way.

2. Read the rank. Every guess comes back with a number. That is where your player sits against the whole squad list for closeness to the secret one. The secret player is 1.

3. Use the colours. Green means you are hot — inside the top handful. Amber is warm. Grey means nothing in common worth chasing.

4. Narrow it down. Closeness weighs current club most, then clubs they have played for, league, nationality, position and age. A team-mate scores high; a keeper in another country does not.

Mystery Player is a daily football guessing game. There is one secret footballer, the same for everyone, and no limit on how many guesses you take to find them. What makes it work is the feedback: instead of a plain right or wrong, every name you try comes back with a rank showing how close that player is to the answer.

Closeness is not a vibe — it is computed from things a football fan already thinks in. Playing for the same club counts for most. Sharing a club somewhere earlier in a career counts next. Then the league, the nationality, the position and how close in age the two players are. So guessing a team-mate of the answer lands you in the top ten immediately, while a goalkeeper in a different country tells you almost nothing except that you can rule out a whole direction.

Everyone gets the same player on the same day, which is the point — a result is worth comparing. Solve it and you get a spoiler-safe grid to share that shows how your guesses ran hot and cold without giving the answer away. It is free, plays in the browser with no account, and the Ball IQ app keeps your solve streak.

Footle — the daily football Wordle — guess the footballer's surname in six.

Transfer Trail — name the player from his career path, one club at a time.