In the 2006 World Cup, Spanish broadcaster Andrés Montes said, “Estamos tocando tiki taka, tiki taka”, which translated to ‘We are playing tiki taka, tiki taka”.

Broadly thought to be a complimentary expression about the precision and elegance of Spain’s play, the initial roots of what would later come to be described as ‘tiki taka football’ began at Barcelona in the age of Johan Cruyff.

It was taken to its extreme by Pep Guardiola whilst he was the Barcelona manager between 2008 and 2012; its place in the football lexicon confirmed.

Nowadays, though, it is better-known to many as part of a new game called Football Tiki Taka Toe.

How to Play

If you were to say ‘imagine a cross between football trivia and Tic Tac Toe’, you might well be accused of sounding a little bit like Alan Partridge. In some ways, though, that is exactly what Football Tiki Taka Toe actually is.

When you begin playing a game you are presented with a three-by-three square grid. At the outer edges are different criteria, such as football clubs, nations or managers. In order to take control of the square, you have to be able to name a player that meets the necessary criteria that line up on either side of the square. You might, for example, need to find a player that has played for both Manchester United and Liverpool.

Just got Mame Biram Diouf for Man Utd-Senegal in a game of Tiki Taka Toe. Might be proudest moment of my life.

— * (@Iosttheplot) January 29, 2024

If you were to say Michael Owen or Paul Ince, you would win control of the square. The aim is to get a line of three consecutive squares under your control, much the same as in the game of Tic Tac Toe. Perhaps you are being asked to name someone who is Brazilian and has been managed by Carlo Ancelotti.

It doesn’t matter if the player is a former one or a current one, if they called Brazil their home nation and have been managed by the Italian at some point in their career, they will count. It might well be the only thing that Richarlison has been good for in his career. Get control of three squares in a row and you’ve won the game.

Example Game

I’ll play a game against myself to show you how it works.

Before you start you have to select your settings:

Here, you can decide on other elements of the game like steals and player suspensions. You can also choose which leagues you want to include (i.e, if you know nothing about any league except the Premier League, stick to English football) and what categories you want such as players, teams, countries, etc.

Once you are happy with that, that game can begin.

Depending on the settings you chose, you will potentially have a few other options first such as choosing which players to suspend, for example, but after that your grid will look like this:

You can see whose turn it is and a few other bits.

You just click on the square you want to go for and type in the player’s name. When it comes up, select it, and if you’re right the square will be filled with your shirt and the player’s name.

Eventually the grid will start filling up like this:

You keep going until one of you fills a full line, and then you have a winner.

The game will give you the option to share a screenshot of your success or play another game and a few other options. So you can do a best of three or brag on your socials about outdoing your opponent:

And that is how to play Tiki-Taka-Toe football.

It’s fun, it’s free, it’s challenging, and it’s simple to play.

Why It Is So Popular

The relative simplicity of the game is one of the reasons as to why it has become so popular. Tic Tac Toe, of course, is as popular as it is precisely because of how easy it is to play, with even small children being able to get involved. The problem with it is that once you’ve played it a few times you know either how to win or how to stop the opposition from winning, so it loses its interest.

With Football Tiki Taka Toe, however, the additional need of having to have some football knowledge means that many people are more likely to find it engaging and also something of a struggle, so you need to love football to make it interesting.

@footballinnit00 DANNY AARONS BALL KNOWLEDGE – FOOTBALL TIC TAC TOE 😱 #footballtiktok #football #premierleague #chelsea #liverpool #dannyaarons ♬ original sound – talkfootball

On top of that, you can also engage Steal Mode.

In Steal Mode, each player has three Steals available to them, giving them the ability to steal a square that is occupied by their opponent. In order to successfully steal, you’ll need to be able to name a different player who meets the necessary criteria. You can use the same player more than once elsewhere on the board, but you can’t do so if you’re trying to steal the square off your opponent.

In essence, this is a game about demonstrating your footballing knowledge as well as having some tactical intelligence regarding where you should go on the board to win or at least not lose.

A Challenge For Football Fans

If all of that sounds like the sort of thing that appeals to you then you might be interested to know who you can play it with. The answer is: anyone.

Obviously your friend who doesn’t like football isn’t going to be all that interested, but if there is someone else who has a similar knowledge level of the game that you do then you can hit them up for a game. There are numerous different websites that offer it, promising you the ability to play against one of the following:

• Someone that you already know who you can play online
• Someone random who is playing online
• Someone in the same location as you who you can play on the same device

There is also the ability to play what is called ‘Box2Box’, which is a daily single player game offered by some sites where you attempt to fill in all of the boxes on a square grid yourself, adding as many names as you can think of to each box. That is a version of the game that is about you testing yourself.