FootyFacts Board

Board #967 — 24 August 2026

The daily soccer grid for 24 August 2026: its six categories, 555 valid answers across nine cells, and where the difficulty sat.

This was the daily board on 24 August 2026 — the 967th since the game began. Boards are generated from their date rather than stored, so this one can be rebuilt exactly, and you can still play it from the Archive tab in the game.

The six categories

Down the side

  • Played for a South American club
  • Played for an Asian club
  • Born in 2000 or later

Across the top

  • Played for Real Madrid
  • Played in MLS
  • Played for Liverpool

How the nine cells broke down

"Valid answers" is how many players in the dataset satisfied both categories. "Most obvious" is the best-known of them — the name most people reach for, and correspondingly the cheapest. "Best available" is the highest score anybody could have taken from that cell.

Cell Valid answers Most obvious Its value Best available
Played for a South American club × Played for Real Madrid 107 Ronaldo +36 🦄 +154
Played for a South American club × Played in MLS 124 Lionel Messi +24 🦄 +161
Played for a South American club × Played for Liverpool 25 Alisson Becker +35 🦄 +148
Played for an Asian club × Played for Real Madrid 61 Cristiano Ronaldo +24 🦄 +138
Played for an Asian club × Played in MLS 87 James Rodríguez +38 🦄 +158
Played for an Asian club × Played for Liverpool 46 Jordan Henderson +39 🦄 +154
Born in 2000 or later × Played for Real Madrid 37 Vinícius Júnior +27 🦄 +166
Born in 2000 or later × Played in MLS 25 Alphonso Davies +30 🦄 +166
Born in 2000 or later × Played for Liverpool 43 Dominik Szoboszlai +35 🦄 +166

Where this board was won

The tightest cell was Played for a South American club × Played for Liverpool, with just 25 valid answers in the entire dataset. The roomiest was Played for a South American club × Played in MLS at 124, a spread of 99.

That gap is the whole game. The roomy cells are where a careless player burns their obvious names for a handful of points each; the tight ones are where the board is actually decided. Anyone who spent Alisson Becker early would have found the last cell considerably harder — a player can only be used once per board.

Who actually qualified

A sample of up to 6 valid answers per cell, spread across the full range rather than taken from the top of it, so each list runs from the obvious pick down towards the deep cuts. The number beside a name is what that answer would have paid in that cell — the same player is worth a different amount in a different cell, which is most of the strategy.

Played for a South American club × Played for Real Madrid

  • Ronaldo+36
  • Iván Zamorano+60
  • Lucas Silva+75
  • Alejandro Chumacero+94
  • Claudemir Vítor+112
  • Luis Gorocito+154

…and 101 more.

Played for a South American club × Played in MLS

  • Lionel Messi+24
  • Ramiro Funes Mori+65
  • Nery Castillo+79
  • Gláuber+95
  • Pablo Pintos+108
  • Líder Mármol+161

…and 118 more.

Played for a South American club × Played for Liverpool

  • Alisson Becker+35
  • Luis Díaz+40
  • Lucas Leiva+45
  • Gabriel Paletta+52
  • Diego Cavalieri+56
  • Vitor Coutinho Flora+148

…and 19 more.

Played for an Asian club × Played for Real Madrid

  • Cristiano Ronaldo+24
  • Álvaro Negredo+54
  • Zé Roberto+62
  • Michael Essien+77
  • Miguel Palanca+98
  • Kianoush Rahmati+138

…and 55 more.

Played for an Asian club × Played in MLS

  • James Rodríguez+38
  • Miloš Degenek+55
  • Blaise Nkufo+71
  • Alexandru Mitriță+84
  • Alexander Hack+96
  • Mark Redshaw+157

…and 81 more.

Played for an Asian club × Played for Liverpool

  • Jordan Henderson+39
  • Georginio Wijnaldum+49
  • Harry Kewell+54
  • Javier Mascherano+61
  • Sarah Gregorius+94
  • Peter Sermanni+154

…and 40 more.

Born in 2000 or later × Played for Real Madrid

  • Vinícius Júnior+27
  • Endrick+44
  • Reinier+56
  • César Palacios+91
  • Pablo Ramón Parra+108
  • Jose Martinez Lopez+166

…and 31 more.

Born in 2000 or later × Played in MLS

  • Alphonso Davies+30
  • Joe Scally+38
  • Ali Ahmed+43
  • Caleb Wiley+52
  • Jacen Russell-Rowe+67
  • Kadir Lobo+166

…and 19 more.

Born in 2000 or later × Played for Liverpool

  • Dominik Szoboszlai+35
  • Milos Kerkez+46
  • Sepp van den Berg+55
  • Bobby Clark+70
  • Marcelo Pitaluga+99
  • Charlotte Clarke+166

…and 37 more.

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