Career path: recognise the player before his clubs run out

Guide · Career path

Career path is one of Goal Bonito's single-player modes. A footballer's clubs are revealed one at a time, with the year he joined each one, and you try to work out who he is. The fewer clubs you need to see, the more points you score.

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How a question works

On the home screen tap Single player, then Career path. Choose a club pool and an era, then tap Start. The screen shows the question "Whose career is this?", a text box and the list of clubs.

1. The first club is already showing. Each row has the club's name, the year he arrived on the right, and underneath, the club's country and the player's age that year.
2. You can see how many clubs are left. A row at the top says something like "5 more clubs to come", so you know from the start how long the career is.
3. A new club appears every few seconds. The newest one is added to the top of the list and highlighted.
4. Type a name and pick a suggestion. After two letters you get up to three suggestions. Tapping one sends it as your guess.
5. The last 15 seconds. Once every club is on screen you have 15 seconds for a final guess. Get it right, or let the time run out, and the next player comes up.

Every question has at least 4 and at most 11 clubs. That means players with three clubs or fewer never appear in this mode, and nor do careers longer than eleven stops.

How fast clubs appear and how scoring works

A run lasts up to 30 players. The first few are very well known; as you go on, the players get less famous. At the same time the clubs appear more quickly and the base score for a correct answer goes up:

On top of that you get 60 points for every club that is still hidden when you name him. So the real points come from guessing early. If he is one of the first four players and has nine clubs, naming him at the third club is worth 100 + 6 × 60 = 460. Name the same player after every club is showing and you get just 100.

Lives, wrong guesses and the end of a run

You have three lives. A wrong guess doesn't cost one: you see the name with "ruled out" next to it, and that name can't be tried again for this question. The names you've ruled out are listed under the box. The only price of a wrong guess is time: while you type, another club may appear and 60 points go with it.

You only lose a life when every club has been revealed and the final 15 seconds run out. The answer is then shown and the next player comes up. The run ends when your three lives are gone or when you've named the last player. The end screen shows your score and how many players you named; if you ran out of lives, it also shows the question that got you. Beat your best and it says "New record".

What you'll see in a career

• Loans: a club he joined on loan has "Loan" written under it. The return from a loan is not a separate row, so the loan club is followed straight away by his next move.
• Loans that became permanent: if he later signed permanently for the club he was on loan at, that counts as a single stop. The row has no loan label, and the year is the year he first arrived.
• Youth and reserve sides: teams such as U19s, B teams, Jong or Primavera sides don't get their own row. Usually the first row is the club where he broke into the first team. Sometimes a small club from his childhood sits at the top; the young age gives it away.
• A first club with no year: in some careers the first club shows no year and no age. That happens when the date he joined isn't known.
• Going back to an old club: if he returned to a former club after playing elsewhere, that club appears in the list a second time.
• Clubs that no longer exist: a defunct club has a small clock icon next to its name.
• Age: worked out as the year he arrived minus his birth year, so it can be a year off his real age at the time.

Choosing the club pool and era

In this mode the club pool filters players, not clubs: you get footballers whose career passed through that pool at least once. The whole career doesn't have to be there. Pick One league and choose the Süper Lig, and you can get foreign stars who spent only part of their career in Turkey, like Drogba and Džeko in the examples below. Big 5 leagues gives you players who passed through a Premier League, LaLiga, Serie A, Bundesliga or Ligue 1 club.

If you pick an era, only players with at least one appearance in those decades are asked; you can tick more than one decade. With the era left on All, the pool is made up of players born in 1965 or later, so tick the 80s if you want older stars. This mode only asks about players with long careers in top divisions, so you won't face lower-league players you've never heard of.

Strategy: how to spot the player early

What the first club tells you

The first row usually shows where he came through. The country is a strong hint about nationality, but not a certain one: plenty of African and South American players grew up in European academies. If the first club is a small side and the age is around 15, he went there as a boy and the real clue is in the second row. If the first club is a big club with a famous academy, your shortlist shrinks straight away.

Read the age column

The ages sketch the shape of the career. A first club at 17 or 18 and a move abroad before 20: a talent spotted early. The first big club at 24 or 25: a late bloomer. Rows from the mid-thirties onwards are usually the last stops, in places like the United States, the Gulf or China. You can also work out the birth year: take the age away from the year and you get the birth year the game has on record, which you can match exactly against the suggestions.

Familiar career shapes

• South America, then the Netherlands or Portugal, then a big league: many talents take their first step into Europe through one of those two leagues.
• Academy, big transfer, another continent at the end: MLS, the Gulf or China in his thirties.
• Going home: the first club turning up again near the end of the list.
• Young years spent on loan: several "Loan" labels in a row can point to a big club farming out its youngsters.

Test your hunch with the suggestions

Suggestions come from every player in the game, so they don't give the answer away. But each one shows a birth year and a nationality. When a name comes to mind, type it and, before tapping, compare those two details with the list: do the country and the ages fit? If they do, tap. Names you've already ruled out are greyed out, so you can't make the same mistake twice.

Wait or guess?

Because a wrong guess costs no life, go for it as soon as you have a solid hunch: if you're right, every hidden club is worth 60 points to you; if you're wrong, only that name is ruled out. If nothing comes to mind, don't fire off random names; wait for another club to appear. Random names only break your concentration, and a new club is a few seconds away anyway. In the last 15 seconds, though, always try something: running out of time costs a life, a wrong answer doesn't.

Check how many clubs are left. "2 more clubs to come" means a short, settled career; "9 more clubs" means you're looking for a player who moved around a lot.

Three example careers

These paths use the details the game shows: club, country, year he arrived and age. We list them from the first club to the last for easy reading; in the game the newest club sits at the top. The names are in the explanations, so have a go yourself first.

Example 1: the striker from Uruguay

1. Club Nacional, Uruguay, 2005, age 18
2. FC Groningen, Netherlands, 2006, age 19
3. Ajax Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2007, age 20
4. Liverpool FC, England, 2011, age 24
5. FC Barcelona, Spain, 2014, age 27
6. Atlético de Madrid, Spain, 2020, age 33
7. Club Nacional, Uruguay, 2022, age 35
8. Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense, Brazil, 2023, age 36
9. Inter Miami CF, United States, 2024, age 37

Uruguay first, then the Netherlands at 19 and 20: the classic South American youngster arriving in the Eredivisie. When Ajax follows Groningen, most people think of Luis Suárez, and the suggestion "1987 · Uruguay" fits the row that says age 20 in 2007. If he is among the first four players, naming him there scores 460. If you're not sure, Liverpool is the safe moment (400), and after Barcelona everyone has it. The second Club Nacional row near the end is a neat example of a player going home.

Example 2: the late bloomer

1. Levallois SC, France, 1993, age 15
2. Le Mans FC, France, 1998, age 20
3. EA Guingamp, France, 2002, age 24
4. Olympique Marseille, France, 2003, age 25
5. Chelsea FC, England, 2004, age 26
6. Shanghai Shenhua, China, 2012, age 34
7. Galatasaray, Türkiye, 2013, age 35
8. Chelsea FC, England, 2014, age 36
9. CF Montréal, Canada, 2015, age 37
10. Phoenix Rising FC, United States, 2017, age 39

The age of 15 on the first row tells you Levallois is left over from his youth. The real clue is in the ages: he joins Guingamp at 24 and Marseille at 25. You're looking for a forward who blossomed late in France, and the name that fits best is Didier Drogba. If he is among the first four players, guessing at the Marseille row gets you 460, and at the Chelsea row 400. Watch out: France is the country on four rows in a row, but Drogba is from the Ivory Coast. The suggestion shows "1978 · Ivory Coast", and age 26 in 2004 fits that too. The two Chelsea rows show how a return to an old club appears twice, and for Turkish fans the Galatasaray row is the last lifeline.

Example 3: from Sarajevo to the Bundesliga

1. FK Zeljeznicar Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2003, age 17
2. FK Teplice, Czech Republic, 2005, age 19
3. FK Viagem Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic, 2005, age 19, Loan
4. VfL Wolfsburg, Germany, 2007, age 21
5. Manchester City, England, 2011, age 25
6. AS Roma, Italy, 2015, age 29
7. Inter Milan, Italy, 2021, age 35
8. Fenerbahçe, Türkiye, 2023, age 37
9. ACF Fiorentina, Italy, 2025, age 39
10. FC Schalke 04, Germany, 2026, age 40

This one shows nicely how the game handles loans. You see the loan from Teplice to Usti, but there is no row for the return to Teplice; the loan is followed straight away by Wolfsburg. Roma, on the other hand, began as a loan and became a permanent move: one row, dated 2015, with no loan label. As for who it is: a Bosnian who went from Sarajevo to the Czech Republic and joined Wolfsburg at 21. A keen Bundesliga watcher names Edin Džeko at the fourth row, which is worth 460 if he is among the first four players. Most people get him at Manchester City, and Turkish football fans will have him by the Fenerbahçe row at the latest.

More guides

Knowing careers helps in online matches too: finding a player who played for two clubs is usually a matter of remembering one career. Have a look at the 3-2-1 online match strategy, Classic ladder and This or that guides, and at Played for both clubs for hand-picked examples. Quick questions are answered in the FAQ. If a career looks wrong or incomplete, write to destek@goalbonito.com.