How to Play Link Up

What Is Link Up?

Link Up is a daily connection puzzle on TopBins.Games that challenges your knowledge of football squads and player careers. Each day, you are given two football players — a starting player and a target player — and your goal is to build a chain that links them together through shared teammates. The concept is rooted in the interconnected nature of professional football, where transfers and loan spells create a web of relationships between players across different clubs, leagues, and eras. If you have ever wondered how a Brazilian midfielder from the early 2000s might be connected to a current Premier League striker, Link Up gives you the platform to find out. It is a game that rewards broad knowledge of football squads from past and present.

Gameplay Overview

When you open Link Up, you will see two player names displayed on screen: your starting player and your target player. Your task is to create a chain of players where each consecutive pair in the chain shared a squad at some point in their careers. For example, if your starting player is Thierry Henry and your target is Luka Modric, you might link Henry to Cesc Fabregas through their time at Arsenal, and then link Fabregas to Modric through their overlapping years in La Liga. Or even go for one of the one link answers such a William Gallas. Each link in your chain must be a valid connection, meaning the two players genuinely played together at the same club or on the same national team during an overlapping period. A new puzzle is released every day, giving you a fresh pair of players to connect.

How Connections Work

A valid connection in Link Up requires that two players were registered with the same club during at least one overlapping season. This includes players who shared a first-team squad, even if they did not necessarily appear in the same match together. The game draws from a comprehensive database of football squads spanning multiple decades and leagues, so connections can pass through the top 5 European leagues. Understanding which players overlapped at a given club is the fundamental skill that Link Up tests. A player who had spells at many different clubs, such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Samuel Eto'o, becomes an incredibly valuable linking piece because they share teammates with a vast number of other players across multiple leagues.

Building Your Chain

The art of Link Up lies in constructing the shortest and most efficient chain possible. While you might be able to connect any two players through a long series of links, the real challenge is minimizing the number of steps. Start by thinking about which clubs or national teams the starting and target players have been associated with. Look for common ground — perhaps they both played in the same league during overlapping years, or they share a connection through a well-traveled teammate. Players who featured for major clubs like Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United, or Juventus are often useful bridges because these squads have hosted talent from all over the world. International teams can also serve as powerful connectors, as players from the same country who played in vastly different club leagues still share a national team bond.

• Identify the clubs and national teams of both the start and target players
• Look for well-traveled players who can bridge different leagues
• Major clubs with international rosters make excellent connection points
• National team squads can link players from different domestic leagues
• Aim for the shortest chain possible to maximize your score

Scoring System

Link Up rewards efficiency. The fewer players you need in your chain to connect the starting player to the target, the better your score. A direct connection, where the starting player and target player actually shared a squad, would be the best possible result, though the game typically selects pairs that require at least a few intermediate links. Your score reflects the total number of links used, and the game tracks your performance over time so you can see your improvement. After completing the daily puzzle, you can share your result to compare chain lengths with other players. Finding a shorter path than your friends adds a satisfying competitive edge to the experience, and debating alternative routes is part of the fun.

Tips and Strategy

The most effective Link Up players develop a mental map of football's interconnected world. To build this map, pay attention to transfer windows and remember which players moved between major clubs. Knowing that a particular midfielder spent time at both AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain, for instance, opens up a wealth of potential connections across two of Europe's biggest leagues. Versatile connectors are players who had long careers at multiple clubs in different countries. Goalkeepers and defenders who spent extended periods at single clubs are less useful as links, while well-traveled attackers and midfielders tend to offer more connection options. Studying World Cup and European Championship squads is also valuable because these tournaments bring together players who might otherwise never share a team sheet. Over time, regular play will sharpen your instinct for finding the shortest possible path between any two players in the football universe.

• Follow transfer news to build a mental map of player movements
• Identify well-traveled players who serve as versatile connectors
• Use major tournament squads as linking opportunities
• Think about which leagues and eras both target players belong to
• Practice daily to develop faster pattern recognition for connections
• Consider less obvious links through smaller clubs or national teams