how to play near post
Near post is a free daily football game. There is a secret player, and every player you name gets a rank: where they sit in a list of the whole field sorted by how much they have in common with the secret one. The secret player is number 1.
- Type any player and pick them from the list. Retired players count too.
- Each guess shows its rank. A low number is close: the bar fills and the row warms from grey to red.
- Closeness comes from what two players share: clubs, above all clubs they played for in the same seasons, then nation, position and age, and the league they play in now.
- Guess as often as you like. Your best rank sits at the top of the list.
- Three hints per game: each one names a player about halfway between your best rank and number 1, and counts as a guess.
- Stuck? Give up and the name comes out, with what each of your guesses had in common with it.
Keyboard: Type on your keyboard, arrow keys move between suggestions, Enter guesses, Backspace deletes, and Esc goes back to the menu.
tips
- Start wide: one famous name from each corner of the world tells you where to dig.
- A rank in the low hundreds usually means a club in common. Single figures usually means the same dressing room.
- Two players from one club who rank very differently tell you which years matter.
- Easy draws the secret from the 150 best known names, hard from the next thousand down. The daily is always normal.
faq
Is there a new player every day?
Yes. Everyone gets the same secret player that day. Freeplay deals someone else, and never one of the next month of dailies.
How big is the field?
Every player in our pool with articles in at least 20 Wikipedia languages, well over ten thousand. A guess from outside that field still gets the rank it would have.
How is it scored?
By guesses, hints included. Fewer is better. The share is one colored square per guess, ten to a row, with no names.
Where do the players come from?
Player facts and careers come from Wikidata (CC0). Near post is not affiliated with any league, club or player.