The best online games for football fans

We have selected the best online football games. This selection tells you about the latest releases from EA and Konami and many more atypical projects: fun indie arcades, serious manager simulators, and the most beautiful VR football.

If gambling appeals to you more, we advise you to pay attention to betting apps and similar entertainment. They are available on various gaming sites and are regulated by law.

FIFA series

No matter how the world around us changes, one thing is stable. Every year Electronic Arts releases a new FIFA game, which is not very different from the previous one each time. In FIFA 22, almost all the changes are purely cosmetic. With the technology HyperMotion, for which EA scanned every player at an actual match, added thousands of new animations, and seriously refined the artificial intelligence of the players.

True, all this is for non-next-gen consoles. So, if you don’t have any FIFA and have a PS5/Xbox Series, start with the novelty; the rest can safely pass by. Convenient matchmaking, fascinating career, Ultimate Team mode – all this is available in the predecessors, even at a lower price and without bugs.

eFootball PES 2021 Lite

This free game is an excellent alternative to a very controversial but excited on YouTube, FIFA Online 4. In contrast to the EA project, there is no shameless grind in eFootball and hidden restrictions on the number of “rinks” per day. The match timer is not limited to six minutes. And the physics is a head higher because it was directly transferred from the full-fledged paid version rather than being made from scratch on a low budget.

PES 2021 Lite has its Ultimate Team with blackjack and cards. It is called myClub, and players will have to build a dream team just the same, exchanging players and (where else) knocking them out of loot boxes. However, the proverbial cards do not end there – the players will have access to Matchday PVP mode, focused on cybersports, local matches, and training sessions. Finally, PES Lite players compete on the same servers as the complete version owners, significantly affecting the speed of selecting opponents.

Football Team

Football Teams’ most significant selling point is that there are no AI-controlled dummies on the pitch. Each player is a live player who is invested in the common cause, regardless of whether he is a goalkeeper, defender, or scorer. You will not be able to run for Messiah or Modric but create your athlete and build a career from scratch, sharpening this or that role and raising the player’s status.

Together with other players, you will be able to create your team, manage your club and stadium, move up the standings and spend your earnings on the development of your organization. In addition, you can fully customize the appearance and clothing of the character. Cross-platform support allows you to play with friends from both PC and mobile devices.

Final football VR

A simple but addictive VR sports simulator in which one player takes on the role of a goalkeeper and the other the attacker. The gameplay is more reminiscent of a penalty shootout with a few athletes than a full-fledged football match. However, Final football became an excellent home training game due to the detailed images, smooth animations, good controls, ball physics, and support for VR systems.

Players have access to several match modes, including single-player, multiplayer, cross-platform between PC and mobile devices, and arcade with many fun ways like giant goalkeeper gloves and time dilation.

Football Manager 2021

Football Manager is a severe and niche series that is hardly suitable for spending evenings with friends and beer mugs on the couch. Here you will not participate in the matches, but you will be able to manage any of the hundreds of genuine football clubs. Want to bring Messi back to Barcelona or kick the unwanted player out of the national team? Go ahead, because you are the boss!

Here you will see:

• Transfers; 
• training;
• development of tactics;
• contracts; 
• budget;
• cultivation of talented newcomers and buying stars – all these managerial and economic subtleties are made at the highest level. 

Football Manager 2021 is even more realistic – enough that it’s the only football simulator considering the sport’s deplorable state in the realities of the pandemic. And it’s all the cooler when you compete against live players rather than computer strategists.

Rocket League

Even six years after Rocket League was released, the idea of making racing cars, not football players, run the ball across the field is genius in its simplicity. Here’s your speedy supercar, the ball, the goal, a couple of amps scattered around the map, and most importantly, the frenetic dynamics. That’s it, and the perfect entertainment is ready. It’s as easy and fun as backyard football on the playground after school.

Another plus for Rocket League is the easy matchmaking. The game supports cross-play between all available platforms (PC, PS, Xbox, Switch, and even Mac) and split-screen up to four people on one screen. In addition, players can access external and internal car customization and many fun custom maps and modes. Finally, surprisingly, the Rocket League has excellent cyber sports, if that’s important to you.

United Football

Free-to-play game with a slightly weird cartoonish image – but it weighs 45 megabytes and runs on any old junk. United Football is a light arcade game with five-person teams, fast-paced play, and simple rules. It’s perfect for those who are tired of big football, management, and transfers and want to run the rink and kick a ball around with friends.

In addition, in United Football, you can team up with your friends to form your club or join any organization created by other players and then compete for the title of a better team. United Football is free to download on the official page of the game.

FootLOL: Epic Football League

FootLOL: Epic Football League is a crazy football game without any rules. Here you can call for air strikes on your enemies, booby trap your goal to prevent your attackers from reaching them, set a herd of cows, or call for a tornado to help your opponent. There are dozens of bonuses and different teams, so the variety of situations in the game does not suffer.

FootLOL has a fantastic setting – the players should fight for the title of the best team not only on Earth but also on four other planets, so the trash happening in the game starts to seem not so strange. Several game modes are available, including single-player and multiplayer campaigns with a tournament system and customization for players and teams.

Kopanito All-Stars football

A game with cartoonish images, which feels like a football arcade game since 16-bit consoles – the developers say Nintendo World Cup inspired it. Kopanito All-Stars football – the most straightforward possible entertainment for those who are tired of the (relative) realism of any FIFA and PES and want to turn off the brain and kick the ball.

However, the game has room for hundreds of teams of different levels, 17 tournaments and leagues, and seven different stadiums – not so bad for simple indie football. And the multiplayer mode supports two to ten people.