Free Football Records trivia questions with explained answers.
Football is a game of moments, but it's also a game of numbers — and this free records quiz is built around the ones fans actually argue about. Who has the most Ballon d'Or awards? Who scored the fastest goal? What's the biggest transfer fee ever paid? If you've ever ended a debate by pulling up a stat, this is your category.
It runs across eras and competitions. The Ballon d'Or is a thread of its own: Lionel Messi's record eight, Cristiano Ronaldo's five, and the decade the pair traded it back and forth before Luka Modrić and then Karim Benzema broke the run. There are the goalscoring marks — Messi and Ronaldo rewriting career records, the single-season league records, and the international tallies. And there are the one-off oddities: Hakan Şükür's 11-second World Cup goal, the Hand of God, Neymar's €222m move that doubled the world record overnight.
The questions reward both the headline knowledge and the deep cuts. Some you'll know cold — how many World Cups Brazil have won, who holds the Premier League scoring record. Others go further, into individual-award history, record attendances and the milestones that only the obsessives keep track of. Difficulty climbs from easy to genuinely hard so it tests casual fans and stats nerds alike.
As with every Ball IQ quiz, each answer comes with a short explanation, so even the records you miss become ones you'll remember. Play the free sample below, then open the app for the full set.
Ball IQ has 296 Football Records questions — 42 easy, 131 medium and 123 hard.
20 sample questions. Tap “Show answer” to reveal the answer and the story behind it.
Which club did Ronaldo join from Manchester United in 2009 for a then world record £80m?
Answer: Real Madrid
Real Madrid paid Manchester United a then-world-record 80 million pounds for Ronaldo in 2009, where he went on to win four Champions Leagues.
What is the nickname of Mexico's men's national football team?
Answer: El Tri
'El Tri' is short for 'El Tricolor' — a reference to the green/white/red Mexican flag.
Who won the 2024 Men's Ballon d'Or?
Answer: Rodri
Rodri became the first Manchester City player to win the Ballon d'Or, edging Vinicius Junior months after winning Euro 2024 with Spain (where he was named player of the tournament).
Who won the Ballon d'Or in 2005?
Answer: Ronaldinho
Ronaldinho took the 2005 Ballon d'Or at the peak of his Barcelona spell, the season before he led them to the 2006 Champions League title.
Which Brazilian is widely considered the greatest female footballer ever and won the FIFA World Player of the Year six times?
Answer: Marta
Marta won FIFA World Player of the Year six times — five in a row from 2006 to 2010, then again in 2018 — a record no other woman has approached.
At the 2019 Women's World Cup in France, the USA's opening 13-0 win set a tournament record for the largest margin of victory. Which opponent did they defeat?
Answer: Thailand
Their Southeast Asian opponents made their second-ever World Cup appearance that summer.
In which year did Cristiano Ronaldo first move from Manchester United to Real Madrid?
Answer: 2009
Ronaldo joined Real Madrid in 2009 for a then-world-record fee of around 80 million pounds, going on to become the club's all-time leading scorer.
Which squad number did Ronaldo wear when he first joined Manchester United in 2003?
Answer: 7
Freshly vacated that summer by his Real Madrid-bound predecessor.
Which national team is known as the 'Super Eagles'?
Answer: Nigeria
Nigeria's Super Eagles are three-time Africa Cup of Nations champions (1980, 1994, 2013) and won Olympic gold at Atlanta 1996.
Who scored the most goals in a single Bundesliga season?
Answer: Lewandowski
Lewandowski scored 41 Bundesliga goals in 2020-21, breaking Gerd Muller's 49-year-old record of 40.
In which country is the Libertadores-winning club Estudiantes de La Plata based?
Answer: Argentina
Estudiantes are based in La Plata, Argentina, and won three straight Copa Libertadores titles from 1968 to 1970 under Osvaldo Zubeldía.
Which club is the only one to have won the English top-flight title without losing a single game in the 19th century?
Answer: Preston North End
Preston North End were the original 'Invincibles', winning the inaugural 1888-89 Football League unbeaten and claiming the first English Double — a feat unmatched until Arsenal in 2003-04.
Who is the all-time top scorer for the Spanish national team?
Answer: Villa
David Villa scored 59 goals for Spain, overtaking Raúl's 44 in 2011, and remains the country's record marksman after his 2008 Euro and 2010 World Cup triumphs.
How many different nations have hosted the FIFA Women's World Cup as of 2026?
Answer: 8
China, Sweden, USA, Germany, Canada, France, Australia, and New Zealand. The 2023 edition was co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
As of late 2024, Cristiano Ronaldo holds the record for most international goals in men's football — approximately how many?
Answer: About 135
Ronaldo's tally far exceeds Ali Daei's previous record of 109.
Which Kuwaiti player held the all-time international appearances record with 196 caps before Cristiano Ronaldo overtook him in 2023?
Answer: Bader Al-Mutawa
Bader Al-Mutawa of Kuwait held the record with 196 caps until Ronaldo surpassed him. Ronaldo now has 226+ caps for Portugal.
Which South American club has won the most Copa Libertadores titles?
Answer: Independiente
This Argentine club won it 7 times, mostly in the 1970s and 1980s.
Which player scored a record 50 La Liga goals in the 2011-12 season — still the highest single-season tally in a top-five European league?
Answer: Lionel Messi
His total of 73 goals in all competitions that season (including Copa del Rey and Champions League) is also the most a player has ever scored in a single European season.
When Brazilian forward Denílson moved from São Paulo to Real Betis in 1998, his fee made him the world's most expensive player at the time. Roughly how much was it?
Answer: £21.5 million
A Spanish club not usually associated with record buys briefly held the world transfer record after a World Cup summer.
Who is Italy's all-time leading international scorer?
Answer: Riva
Gigi Riva scored 35 goals in just 42 caps between 1965 and 1974, surpassing Giuseppe Meazza's record and helping Italy win Euro 1968.