Soccer Trivia for Kids
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124 free Soccer Trivia for Kids trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Soccer trivia for kids should be about the game kids actually watch and play: how many players are on the field, what a hat-trick is, why the goalkeeper gets to use their hands, and who won the last World Cup. These 124 questions start with the basics and build up to the stars and records that older kids argue about at practice. The set covers the rules of the game (offside, corners, throw-ins, penalties), the men's and women's World Cups, the Premier League and Champions League, and the players everyone knows: Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappé, Haaland, Marta and Pelé. Every answer is checked against a cited source and the explanations add one fun fact to remember. Play it as a warm-up before training, a rainy-day classroom quiz or a car-ride game on the way to a match. Take a round now and see how many you get right.
30 of 124 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many players does each soccer team have on the field at the start of a match?
Eleven
Eleven players start for each side, and a match cannot begin or carry on if either team is down to fewer than seven.
Q 02Which kick restarts a soccer match after a goal has been scored?
A kick-off
A kick-off restarts play from the centre spot, taken by the team that just let the goal in; since 2016 the ball may even be played backwards.
Q 03How long is each half of a regular soccer match?
45 minutes
Each half lasts 45 minutes, and the referee then adds time at the end to make up for play lost to injuries and substitutions.
Q 04Roughly how many people play soccer around the world, making it the planet's most popular sport?
250 million
About 250 million is the usual estimate, and FIFA's 2006 count found 265 million players; the game spread so widely because it needs little more than a ball and a few simple rules.
Q 05How often is the men's FIFA World Cup held?
Every four years
The men's World Cup is held every four years, with 22 editions played between 1930 and 2022; only a world war has ever interrupted the cycle.
Q 06Which country hosted and won the very first World Cup in 1930?
Uruguay
Uruguay was chosen partly because 1930 was the country's centenary year, which is why the stadium built for the tournament is called the Centenario.
Q 07Which country has won the men's World Cup five times, more than any other nation, and has played in every tournament?
Brazil
Brazil's third title, in 1970, let it keep the original trophy for good, but thieves stole it in Rio in 1983 and it has never been found.
Q 08Which country won the 2026 World Cup, beating Argentina 1-0 in the final?
Spain
Spain won thanks to Ferran Torres's goal in the 106th minute, deep in extra time, and its defence let in just one goal in the whole tournament.
Q 09How many teams played at the 2026 World Cup?
48
48 teams took part, up from 32, which added a whole new knockout round and meant the champions had to play eight matches instead of seven.
Q 10Which player won the Golden Boot as top scorer at the 2026 World Cup with 10 goals?
Kylian Mbappé
Kylian Mbappé's ten goals took his World Cup total to 22, edging past Lionel Messi's 21 to make him the tournament's all-time top scorer.
Q 11What is the term for one player scoring three goals in a single game?
A hat-trick
Three goals by one player in a game is a hat-trick; by tradition the scorer keeps the match ball afterwards, while two goals is called a brace.
Q 12How far from the goal line is the penalty spot?
12 yards
The penalty spot is 12 yards out, and the penalty kick itself was a goalkeeper's idea: Irishman William McCrum, who kept goal for Milford.
Q 13Which term describes kicking the ball out of the air before it touches the ground?
A volley
A volley meets the ball before it lands: at the 2014 World Cup a Colombia midfielder took the ball on his chest, turned and volleyed it in from long range, and fans voted it FIFA's goal of the year.
Q 21Which weapon appears on the badge of Arsenal, a team founded by factory workers?
A cannon
A cannon: Arsenal was founded in 1886 by workers at the Woolwich Arsenal, a weapons factory in London, which is also why the team is nicknamed the Gunners.
Q 22Which Welsh club did actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney take over, as shown in a hit TV documentary?
Wrexham
Wrexham then won three promotions in a row, climbing from the fifth tier of English soccer to the second by 2025.
Q 23What restart is given when the defending team knocks the ball out over its own goal line?
A corner kick
A corner kick began as a Sheffield idea: the city's clubs played by their own rules and persuaded the Football Association to adopt it in 1872.
Q 14What happens to a player who is shown a second yellow card in the same match?
Sent off
Sent off: a second yellow card ends the player's match, and the team cannot bring on a replacement, so it finishes a player short.
Q 15What kind of animal was Paul, who 'predicted' the winner of eight straight matches at the 2010 World Cup?
An octopus
An octopus: Paul chose between two boxes of food marked with the teams' flags in his aquarium tank, and all eight of his picks came true.
Q 16Which MLS club did Lionel Messi join in 2023?
Inter Miami
Inter Miami, co-owned by David Beckham, sat bottom of its conference when Messi arrived, yet weeks later it won the Leagues Cup, its first ever trophy.
Q 17What is the five-a-side version of soccer played on an indoor court called?
Futsal
Futsal uses a smaller, heavier ball that barely bounces, so play stays on the floor and rewards quick feet and close control.
Q 18Which national team has Cristiano Ronaldo captained?
Portugal
Portugal won Euro 2016, its first major trophy, even though captain Cristiano Ronaldo was carried off injured after only 25 minutes of the final.
Q 19What is the nickname of England's women's national soccer team?
The Lionesses
The Lionesses ended England's 56-year wait for a major trophy by winning Euro 2022 at Wembley, something the men had not managed since 1966.
Q 20Which Asian country hosted the first Women's World Cup, in 1991?
China
China hosted in 1991, though FIFA did not yet call the event a World Cup: its official title was the World Championship for Women's Football.
Q 24How must a player deliver a throw-in?
With both hands from behind and over the head
A throw-in must be taken with both hands from behind and over the head, and a goal cannot be scored straight from one.
Q 25Which rule stops attackers from simply waiting beside the other team's goal for a pass?
Offside
Offside used to be even stricter: until 1925 an attacker needed three opponents, not two, between him and the goal line when the ball was played.
Q 26Which term describes a player accidentally scoring for the other team?
An own goal
An own goal counts for the other team; in 2002 a club in Madagascar scored 149 of them on purpose in one match, as a protest against a referee.
Q 27Which part of a soccer goal rests on top of the two posts, eight feet above the ground?
The crossbar
The crossbar came later: the first goals of 1863 had no top at all, and from 1866 the limit was just a tape stretched between posts eight yards apart.
Q 28What acrobatic move sees a player strike the ball backwards over their own head while in midair?
A bicycle kick
A bicycle kick by Cristiano Ronaldo in a 2018 Champions League match was so spectacular that the opposing team's own fans stood up to applaud him.
Q 29If you dribble the ball between a defender's legs, what trick have you pulled off?
A nutmeg
A nutmeg has its own street sport: in Dutch 'panna' games, played one against one in small cages, slipping the ball through an opponent's legs knocks them out.
Q 30Which Norwegian striker scored 36 league goals in his first season at Manchester City?
Erling Haaland
Erling Haaland's 36 goals in 2022-23 set a new league record, and as a teenager he once scored nine in a single match at the Under-20 World Cup.