11 of the best football apps you NEED in your life
11. Bundesliga
If you’re a fan of the Bundesliga, the league’s official app (which includes the 2.Bundesliga) is a must-download. Not only does it look lovely, it’s also filled with essential stats for the season on every player, and the latest news from the clubs you care about.
There’s some terrific video content too – and the option to get all of this stuff via push notifications. Probably not best for Bayern Munich goals, though, unless you like regular disturbances.
10. Top Eleven
Fronted by Jose Mourinho, this is perhaps the best mobile management game out there right now. With over 100 million players worldwide, there’s plenty of online action to get involved with, and the live player auctions make for entertaining events.
If you keep up the good work there are trophies and higher levels up for grabs, while you can also go head-to-head with other users in competition and friendlies. There’s no excuse for losing interest here.
9. NewsNow
The worldwide news aggregator is ideal for filtering the stories you want to see about your club. Each page is updated whenever a new article is published, making it the best way to get all the up-to-the-minute news you want. Simple but effective.
8. New Star Soccer
So good and beloved it’s won a BAFTA, NSS is an immensely fun game in which you control the fate of a lower-league 16-year-old with the aim of taking him to glory.
Along the way you’ll be forced to maintain your relationships with your coach, team-mates and girlfriends. Just don’t spend all your hard-earned cash in the casino. Or take a bribe. Or maybe just go ahead and do both of those things – it’s entirely up to you, after all. Best of all: FourFourTwo now feature in it.
7. SofaScore
SofaScore offers you scores, team news, referee info and everything else in between for nothing. If you invite enough mates to download it you’ll lose the ads too, but in truth they’re not that intrusive anyway.
During a game you can pick up the key live stats and, uniquely, see how your team is faring with the action graph. They’ll even rate your players using their own Opta-based algorithm.
6. Live Football On TV
Free evening? Want to avoid aimlessly scrolling through Netflix (again) only to decide it’s all rubbish (again)? This is the quickest way to find out which games are on TV and when.
It doesn’t just focus on the major European leagues, either. If you want to know when and where to catch up with the Australian A-League, Chinese Super League, Brazilian Serie A, Portuguese Primeira Liga or Belgian Jupiler League, this is an app you need in your life. Just don’t expect to leave the house much any more - unless you happen to have the next couple of apps...
4 & 5. BT Sport/Sky Go
Whether you’re on the move or have been forced to give up that precious big screen for EastEnders, these two apps will ride to your rescue.
BT Sport’s is the superior of the two – on European nights you can flick between matches seamlessly, but most impressively their ‘Enhanced Player’ allows you to re-watch any goals or big incidents via the timeline at the bottom of the screen. If you miss kick-off and want to watch the game from the start, just scroll back and enjoy. What could be better?
3. Transfermarkt
The football nerd’s dream website is also available in app format. It’s arguably the best out there for its breadth of appearance data, while it’s also the go-to destination for transfer information – including Transfermarkt’s own market value rating.
Although the mobile version isn’t as good as its browser big brother, you can find stuff on here that other sites won’t have.
2. Forza Football
A bit different, this, in that it will canvas approval ratings of your club’s manager, players and chairman throughout the season. You can get involved by giving your opinion and keeping track of popularity as time goes on.
You’ll also get a hive of information with Forza, including live scores, line-ups, goal videos, tables, scoring charts, disciplinary/transfer news and plenty more.
1. Livescore
Simplicity is often best. When all you want to do is check some scores sharpish, Livescore should be your only port of call. Not only is it quick to update once the goals fly in, the latest version features team line-ups and in-game stats too.
Greg Lea is a freelance football journalist who's filled in wherever FourFourTwo needs him since 2014. He became a Crystal Palace fan after watching a 1-0 loss to Port Vale in 1998, and once got on the scoresheet in a primary school game against Wilfried Zaha's Whitehorse Manor (an own goal in an 8-0 defeat).