Average IQ of a Soccer Player (Footballer) Explained
There is no reliable average IQ of a soccer player, because nobody has given standard IQ tests to a large group of professionals and published the scores. What researchers have measured is executive function (planning, switching and coming up with new options fast), and elite players tend to score higher on that than lower-level players. "Football IQ" is about that game intelligence, not your score on a paper test.
If you've ever wondered whether you're the "reads the game" type or the "solves it on paper" type, IQ Tester shows your strengths across four kinds of reasoning: Find my weak spots.
Average IQ of a soccer player: what we know
Let's clear the pitch first.
- Average IQ of a footballer: not measured in any big published study.
- Average IQ of a professional football player: same answer. Clubs don't release testing data.
- Viral numbers: usually from listicles that never cite a source.
Quick language note, since this keyword is searched both ways. In the UK, Canada (sometimes) and most of the world, "football" means soccer and a "footballer" is a soccer player. In the US, "football player" usually means American football. Both are covered below, so you're in the right place either way.
Football IQ vs IQ
Football IQ meaning
Football IQ (or soccer IQ) is how well a player understands what's happening and what's about to happen. Think of a midfielder who checks over their shoulder twice before the ball arrives, then plays a first-time pass into the space nobody else saw. Coaches call it game intelligence, reading the game, or having a "football brain."
IQ is a standardized score on reasoning problems, set so the average person scores 100.
The overlap is real but partial. Both reward pattern spotting. But football IQ is trained by thousands of hours of matches and is mostly fast and instinctive. An IQ test is slow, abstract and doesn't care whether you know what a false nine is.
Is there a real football IQ test?
Most "football IQ test" results online are trivia quizzes: name the 2010 World Cup winner, guess the club from the badge. Fun in the group chat, but that's knowledge, not intelligence. Some academies use video tests (freeze a clip, pick the best pass), which get closer to measuring game intelligence.
The executive-function studies on elite players
This is the part most pages skip, so here it is in plain words.
In 2012, a team of Swedish researchers led by Torbjörn Vestberg published a study in the journal PLoS ONE. They tested players from Sweden's top divisions and lower divisions on executive function, the brain's "control center" skills. The key test was a design-fluency task: make as many different patterns as you can, quickly, without repeating yourself.
What they reported:
- Players in the higher divisions scored better than those in lower divisions.
- Both groups scored above the general population norms on these tasks.
- Executive-function scores were linked with goals and assists over the following seasons.
A later study by the same group looked at younger elite players and found a similar pattern.
What this does and doesn't mean
- It does suggest that thinking fast, inventing options and flexibly switching plans matters on the pitch.
- It does not give us an average IQ of a soccer player. Executive function tests aren't IQ tests.
- It's a relatively small set of studies, so treat it as interesting evidence, not final proof.
| Thing measured | What it looks like on the pitch | Is it IQ? |
|---|---|---|
| Design fluency (new ideas fast) | Finding a pass nobody expected | No, related |
| Cognitive flexibility | Switching from attack to defense instantly | No, related |
| Working memory | Remembering where five players were a second ago | Partly |
| Abstract reasoning | Rarely used directly | Yes, core of IQ tests |
Which footballers are called the smartest
Which soccer player has the highest IQ?
Nobody can answer this with real data, since players don't publish IQ scores. But some names come up again and again as the smartest footballers:
- Xavi and Andrés Iniesta: the classic examples of elite game intelligence and scanning.
- Sócrates: the Brazil captain who was also a qualified doctor.
- Juan Mata: known for his degrees and thoughtful off-field projects.
- Frank Lampard: British newspapers have long repeated a story about him scoring very high on an IQ test. It's widely shared but hard to verify, so file it under "press lore."
- Vincent Kompany: completed an MBA while still playing.
Notice the pattern: the "smartest" list mixes two different things, on-pitch intelligence and academic achievement. They're not the same.
Pro footballer vs American football player
If you landed here searching "average iq of a football player" and meant the NFL, here's the difference:
- Soccer: no standard cognitive test across the sport, but executive-function research exists.
- American football: the NFL used the Wonderlic test at the scouting combine for years, so there are public scores by position.
We break down the Wonderlic and quarterback scores in average IQ of NFL players. Basketball has its own version of this debate too: see average IQ of NBA players.
Train your game intelligence
How to improve football IQ, whether you're in a high school team, a Sunday league, or playing for your uni (or college, in US terms):
- Scan before you receive. Look over your shoulder before every pass comes to you. Count it. Aim for two checks.
- Watch one player, not the ball. Pick a midfielder on TV and follow only them for 15 minutes.
- Play small-sided games. Rondos and 4v4s force faster decisions than full matches.
- Ask "why" after mistakes. Lost the ball? Was it the touch or the decision? Most of the time it's the decision.
- Talk on the pitch. Calling "man on" and "time" makes you process the game out loud.
- Train your brain off the pitch. Short daily puzzles on patterns and logic keep your problem-solving sharp. They won't replace training, but they're a decent warm-up for your head.
The hard part is knowing which thinking skill is actually your weak link. Is it spotting patterns? Holding things in memory? Following logic chains?
Judging your own brain is like reviewing your own penalty miss: you'll be either too harsh or too easy on yourself. IQ Tester scores you across number series, verbal analogy, logic and pattern questions, then the guides give you one short drill a day on the weakest area. Find my weak spots
Find out how your brain reads the game
You can't look up the average IQ of a soccer player, but you can see your own reasoning profile right now. Sign in with Google or Apple, answer 20 untimed questions, and your band plus three of your four category strengths are free. You can also challenge a teammate head-to-head and settle who's actually the big brain of the squad.
FAQ
What is the average IQ of a footballer?
There's no published average. No large study has given standard IQ tests to professional footballers. Research has focused on executive function instead, where elite players tend to score above average.
What does football IQ mean?
Football IQ means game intelligence: reading the play, scanning, choosing the right pass and positioning well. It's a coaching term, not a test score, and it's built mostly through experience.
Which soccer player has the highest IQ?
Nobody knows, since players don't release IQ scores. Players like Xavi, Iniesta and Sócrates are often called the smartest, but that's based on how they played or their academic records, not tested IQ.
Is there a football IQ test?
Most online "football IQ tests" are trivia quizzes. Some academies use video decision-making tests, which are closer to measuring game intelligence. Neither gives you a real IQ score.
Are footballers smart?
Elite footballers often show strong executive function, according to the Swedish studies. Beyond that, footballers vary like any other group. Being brilliant on the pitch says little about how someone would do on an abstract reasoning test.