This super-tough Wordle alternative is a must-play for soccer fans

A soccer ball on a field
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Update: Wordle Archive, one of the most popular ways to play old Wordle games, just got shut down. This could be bad news for other unofficial Wordle-related apps

The best Wordle alternatives list just keeps growing. We’ve already highlighted entries that challenge players to prove their fluency with numbers or their ability to identify pop songs, but Who Are Ya? is instead the perfect puzzle game for soccer lovers. 

The football-themed Wordle alternative follows the now-standard format of giving you a set number of guesses to solve the puzzle, of which there's only one each day. But that aside it doesn't have that much in common with the original. 

The task is to identify a randomly selected professional soccer player in eight guesses or less. And as you'd expect, each incorrect guess reveals some hints to give you an idea of how close to the correct player you were.  

The process of elimination is made a little easier each time, as you’re told whether the player you guessed is of the same nationality as the answer, and if they play in the same league and for the same team. You'll also find out if they play in the same position and whether they are older, younger or the same age.

Screen of Who Are Ya? the soccer Wordle alternative

(Image credit: Missing 11)

So, for example, if the Who Are Ya? Answer of the day was Neymar and your first guess was Bruno Guimaraes, you’d be told that the two players are of the same nationality (both are Brazilian) but that they don’t play in the same league or position, or for the same team. Using this information, you can then attempt to narrow down your search until you hopefully get the correct answer within the allotted eight guesses. 

Like Wordle, and its many imitators, the game sounds pretty straightforward on paper but is surprisingly tricky in practice. It makes things slightly easier by only including players who have made at least one appearance this season for a club in Europe’s top five leagues (Premier League, La Liga, Ligue 1, Serie A, Bundesliga), but that's still a potentially large pool to choose from. 

Who Are Ya? is far from the only worthwhile Wordle clone out there. If you’d rather step the difficulty up a level you might like Quordle or Octordle — which give you four or eight puzzles to solve respectively — or Squabble, which is a frantic (and very enjoyable) battle royale take on the original. 

We're also big fans of Worldle, which challenges you to guess the country based on its outline, and Heardle, in which you have to identify a song from just a few seconds of audio. 

Rory Mellon
Entertainment Editor (UK)

Rory is an Entertainment Editor at Tom’s Guide based in the UK. He covers a wide range of topics but with a particular focus on gaming and streaming. When he’s not reviewing the latest games, searching for hidden gems on Netflix, or writing hot takes on new gaming hardware, TV shows and movies, he can be found attending music festivals and getting far too emotionally invested in his favorite football team.