Guide · Football · Soccer · Basketball
The Best Apps to Draft Your Starting Lineup in Football, Soccer, and Basketball
Every sports fan has argued about a starting lineup: the all-time five, the best eleven, the offense that never loses. A good lineup-drafting app turns that argument into a game. It deals you players, makes you commit, and tells you how your team would have done.
Most results for "build a starting lineup" are not that. Some only draw names on a pitch. Some are season-long fantasy leagues. Some sit inside a video game you have to buy. This guide sorts the options for football, soccer and basketball and says which ones are worth your time.
The quick answer
- Best overall: Any Lineup. Free, no account, and the only draft game in this guide that covers basketball, football and soccer in one place.
- American football only: 20-0, a spin-draft game on the web and iOS.
- Soccer only: 38-0, or RotoWire's Premier League All-Time XI.
- Basketball on iPhone: Legend Five or DraftBattle.
- Just a lineup graphic: Starting11 or RenderFoot.
- A season-long league with friends: ESPN, Yahoo or Sleeper fantasy.
What makes a good lineup-drafting app
We judged every app on the same five things.
- A real decision. Grabbing the biggest number on the screen is not drafting. The best games make you weigh position, fit and teammates.
- A random draw. If you can pick any player you like, you pick the same stars every time. A random pool turns every run into a different story.
- An honest verdict. A grade or a record you cannot talk your way out of.
- Your sport. Most apps cover one league. Very few cover all three of the big team sports.
- No friction. Accounts, subscriptions, downloads and entry fees get in the way of a game that should take minutes, not an evening.
1. Any Lineup: our pick for the best lineup-drafting app
Any Lineup is a free game that runs in your browser, on a phone or a computer. Open it, pick a pool, pick a sport and start drafting. There is nothing to sign up for.
For football, soccer and basketball you use the Legends pool: 1,617 real players, with 526 from the NBA, 757 from the NFL and 334 from soccer. Pick basketball and you fill a starting five plus three bench spots. Pick football and you build an offense, a defense or a full 22-player team. Pick soccer and you set up a 4-3-3.
How a draft works
- Get six random cards. Every pick, the game deals you six random players from the pool. Each card shows only height, weight and speed. Every other rating stays hidden. You get one re-deal per game.
- Pick one and choose the spot. You decide where he plays, from the spots he really played. Nobody tells you the best arrangement while you draft.
- Build chemistry. Teammates from the same franchise, club or nation play better together.
- Get your season. Fill the lineup and you see its overall rating, a tier and a projected record: 82 games in basketball, 17 in football and 38 in soccer, where draws make a record read like 26-6-6.
Want it harder? Hard mode spins for a pool, such as a decade and a team, and deals nobody face up. You have to type a name to reveal a player, so you have to know your history.
Why it comes out on top
- All three sports in one game. Every other draft game in this guide is built for a single sport. Here football also means defense, or the whole 22.
- The position call is yours, and it counts. Real players can only stand where they actually played, but plenty have more than one spot, and how you spread them across the lineup, with their teammates, decides your record. Nothing recommends a spot while you draft. That is the whole game: where you put them.
- It tells you what you got wrong. After the result, the "Better spots" note shows the record your same players would have had in their best arrangement and lists the swaps that get there, or says "Perfect fit." As far as we can tell from their own descriptions, none of the other games here ends that way.
- The same game works beyond sports. The pools include Presidents, Leaders from History, Business Leaders and Mythology. Want to see what Zeus does at point guard? There is a pool for that.
- Free in the plainest sense. No account, no ads, no subscription and no daily limit. The privacy page says it uses no analytics.
- A result worth sharing. When you finish, you can save or send a picture of your lineup with its overall and projected record, or post the team to the shared teams page.
Fair warning
- It is a solo game. You draft alone and share the result. For live head-to-head drafts, look at DraftBattle or Legend Five below.
- Ratings are fan-made estimates, not official statistics.
- The pool is curated, not every player who ever played. If you want a database of tens of thousands of names to drag onto a pitch, a lineup builder is the better tool.
Best apps to draft a football lineup
American football has the biggest rosters, so it is the hardest sport to draft well. The options come in three kinds: spin-draft games, console modes and fantasy leagues (covered further down). Any Lineup is above; here is what else is out there.
20-0: a spin-draft game for American football
20-0 is the closest thing to Any Lineup in football. You press spin to land on a team and an era, such as Dallas, 1992–96, then pick one player from that spin and place him in an open slot. The roster is twelve spots: six on offense and six on defense. Your team then plays a simulated 20-game season, 17 regular-season games plus three playoff games, and gets a letter grade from S+ down to F.
It has two ways to play. Classic mode shows each player's ratings, and Gridiron IQ hides them. Best for: football fans who want a quick spin-draft game about football only. It uses a condensed twelve-player roster rather than a full offense and defense, and it does not cover other sports.
Madden Ultimate Team Draft
If you already own Madden, its MUT Draft mode lets you build a team inside Madden Ultimate Team and then play games with it. The catch is that you need the game, and the format and rewards have changed between releases, so check the in-game menu for the current rules. Best for: people who want to play out the games themselves, with the controller in hand.
Best apps to draft a soccer starting XI
Soccer has the most tools, because a lineup graphic is such an easy thing to build. The real question is whether an app makes you draft or just lets you place names. Any Lineup is a draft game: a 4-3-3 on a full pitch, with chemistry from shared clubs and nations and a 38-game projected season.
38-0: spin-draft the English top flight
Each spin of 38-0 lands on a real top-flight club and season, and you draft one player from that squad into your formation. When the XI is full, the game simulates the season and shows how many points your team earns. Its site lists more than 4,000 player seasons, from 1992–93 to today. It is an independent fan game, and several clones share the name, so look for 38-0.app. Best for: Premier League fans who want a deep bench of seasons.
RotoWire Premier League All-Time XI
Every slot is assigned a random Premier League season, and five standout players from that season appear for you to choose from. You get one reshuffle for the whole draft and fill eleven slots: one goalkeeper, four defenders, three midfielders, two wingers and a striker. The result is a letter-graded XI with a card you can download. Best for: a quick all-time Premier League draft with no sign-up.
EA FC Ultimate Team Draft
The draft mode in EA FC Ultimate Team has you pick one of five offered formations, then choose one of five offered players for each slot, with chemistry working as it does in the rest of Ultimate Team. You then play a short knockout series, four matches in recent editions. The players are temporary: they stay in Draft and cannot join your main squad. Best for: people who already play EA FC and want to play the matches.
Starting11 and RenderFoot: lineup builders, not drafts
These two do something different, and do it well. Starting11 has 16 formations and loads a club's real, current squad when you pick it. You do not need an account, and signing in is optional and removes ads. RenderFoot makes a downloadable PNG lineup graphic in 12 formations, and you type the names yourself. Neither one drafts or scores anything. Best for: a match-day XI or a dream XI to post, when the point is the picture and not the game.
Best apps to draft a basketball starting five
Basketball has no shortage of draft games, and five players fit neatly on a phone. In Any Lineup you fill five starters plus three bench seats, and the projected record covers a full 82-game season. Two iPhone apps are worth knowing too.
Legend Five: Basketball Draft
Legend Five draws a real franchise-season, shows you its roster, and lets you pick a player and place him on a half-court from point guard to center. You get three rerolls per draft. Classic mode shows ratings and Memory mode hides them, and the scoring is a fixed team rating with no luck involved. Local drafts are free and unlimited; online play uses one shared daily pool ranked on a global board, and Friends mode lets private groups compare. Pro removes the one-free-online-game-a-day limit. Best for: iPhone owners who want to draft against friends on a daily board.
DraftBattle
DraftBattle is built around head-to-head play. In Division Drafts you have 60 seconds to draft a team and battle real players, and Friend Battles are best-of-seven series with a code you share. The app sells in-app purchases for extra play and for tools such as redrafts and repositioning. Best for: competitive players who like a clock and a live opponent.
Fantasy apps are a different game
ESPN, Yahoo and Sleeper are the names that come up first, and they are good at what they do. You draft real players for the current season, your team scores from real games, and you play against friends all year. ESPN and Yahoo are the long-standing defaults, and Sleeper is the newer one, often praised for its design and social features.
They are not lineup-drafting games, though. You cannot draft a 1990s Bulls guard, you cannot ask "what if," and the answer takes a season instead of a few minutes. Use a fantasy app for a season. Use a lineup-drafting app for the argument.
Side by side
| App | Sports | How you draft | Cost | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Any Lineup | Basketball, football, soccer, plus history, myth and business pools | Six random cards a pick; you choose every spot; ends with a record and a "Better spots" note | Free, no account, no ads | Any browser |
| 20-0 | American football | Spin a team and era, pick one player into a slot; 20-game season and a letter grade | Free; offers a free account | Web, iOS |
| 38-0 | Soccer (English top flight) | Spin a club and season, pick one player; simulated season | Free | Browser |
| RotoWire Premier League All-Time XI | Soccer (Premier League) | Random season per slot, one of five players; one reshuffle; letter grade | Free, no account | Browser |
| EA FC Ultimate Team Draft | Soccer | Pick one of five formations, then one of five players per slot; up to four matches | Entry costs coins, FC Points or tokens | Inside EA FC |
| Legend Five | Basketball | Draw a franchise-season, place a player from point guard to center; three rerolls | Free; Pro $4.99 a week or $14.99 a year | iPhone |
| DraftBattle | Basketball | 60-second drafts against real players | Free with in-app purchases | iPhone |
| Starting11 | Soccer | Lineup builder, no draft: 16 formations, real squads | Free, no sign-up; signing in removes ads | Browser |
Details as of November 2026, from each app's own page or store listing. Prices and features change.
Questions
- What is the best app to draft a starting lineup?
- For most people, Any Lineup. It is free, needs no account, and is the only lineup-drafting game in this guide that covers basketball, football and soccer in one place. It deals you six random players a pick, lets you choose where each one plays, and ends with a projected season record and a note on which swaps would have done better. We make it, so read the comparison above and decide for yourself.
- Is there one app that covers football, soccer and basketball?
- Among the draft games we looked at, Any Lineup is the only one that does all three. The others are built for one sport, such as 20-0 for American football, 38-0 for soccer or Legend Five for basketball. Fantasy platforms such as ESPN and Yahoo cover several sports, but they are season-long leagues, not lineup-drafting games.
- What is the difference between a lineup builder and a draft game?
- A lineup builder lets you place any player you like on a pitch, usually to make a graphic. A draft game limits you to a random pool, makes you choose, and then scores the result, so the question becomes whether you drafted well and not just who your favorite players are.
- Is there a free app to draft an all-time starting five?
- Yes. Any Lineup is free with no account, and its basketball pool has 526 NBA players for a starting five plus three bench spots. Some other basketball draft apps, such as Legend Five and DraftBattle, are free to download but sell upgrades such as subscriptions or in-app purchases.
- Are the player ratings in Any Lineup real?
- No. Heights, weights and ratings are approximate, fan-made and for fun. They are not official statistics, and Any Lineup is a fan project that is not affiliated with any league, team or player.
- Can I draft against friends?
- Any Lineup is a solo game: you draft alone, then share a picture of your team or post it to the shared teams page. For head-to-head drafts, look at DraftBattle or the friends mode in Legend Five, both basketball games for iPhone.
Six cards. One open spot. Who starts?
Start draftingFree. No account. Plays on your phone. Also try the Mythology, Presidents and Legends pools.