Category: Reveal

A lone triumphal arch in Soupir is all that remains of a château whose story spans medieval fortifications, aristocratic rebuilding, and Belle Époque extravagance. The original stronghold — “four towers, a drawbridge, a moat” — was already decayed when sold in 1456. The Baudoin family rebuilt its vast perimeter wall and hosted Fénelon in 1710, but by the mid‑18th century Antoine‑Séraphin Baudoin sold the estate to fund his Seven Years’ War expedition. Later owners suffered the destruction of the 1814–1818 Russian occupation.

The remains of the gate to the castle.

A renaissance came in 1873 when Pauline Plé, heir to the Piper‑Heidsieck fortune, transformed the manor into a Chambord‑inspired palace, doubling its size and modernizing the village. In 1906 it passed to Mary Boursin — born Marie Georget, once a boot stitcher and later the secret companion of Alfred Chauchard, founder of the Louvre department stores. She inherited his immense wealth, hosted lavish gatherings, and built the arch in 1908 with her initials.

Disaster struck in 1914: Mary’s daughter won a lawsuit for recognition, Calmette — to whom Mary had donated the château — was assassinated, and war obliterated Soupir. The château burned, was shelled, and vanished entirely by early 1915 along with the village. Mary died in 1921, leaving a fortune worth nearly €2.8 billion today. Calmette’s heirs sold the ruins and land for agriculture. Only the arch, a rusted gate, and traces of the moat survive — listed monuments standing alone in a field where the château once rose.

Those who found it before the hint:

• Paul Voestermans
• Lighthouse
• Martin de Bock
• Garfield
• Phil Ower

And after the hint:

• Graham Hedley
• Eloy Cano
• Centaurea

The Baobab Prison Tree near Derby, Western Australia, is a 1,500‑year‑old Adansonia gregorii with a massive 14.7‑metre girth. Although long rumoured to have been used as a lockup for Indigenous prisoners in the 1890s, historians have found no evidence supporting this claim. In local Nyulnyulan languages, boab trees—larrgadiy—hold deep cultural and mythological significance and are regarded as individual beings with distinct personalities.

Early European documentation came from anthropologist Herbert Basedow, who photographed the tree in 1916 and described it as a hollow living hut used by Aboriginal people. He reported finding human bones inside, suggesting the tree had served as an ossuary as well as a shelter. These remains later disappeared, likely stolen by early visitors. Basedow’s accounts highlight the tree’s long-standing cultural use rather than any colonial penal function.

The “prison tree” myth emerged only in 1948, when artist Vlase Zanalis exhibited a painting that prompted newspapers to repeat an unverified story borrowed from a different boab tree in Wyndham. Scholars Kristyn Harman, Elizabeth Grant, and Kim Akerman have since debunked the tale, noting its absence from Aboriginal histories and colonial records. Today the tree is a protected tourist site under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972, fenced to prevent damage from visitors and vehicles.

Those who found it before the hint:

• Eloy Cano
• Martin de Bock
• Phil Ower
• Garfield
• Paul Voestermans
• Lighthouse

And after the hint:

• Centaurea
• Graham Hedley
• Bernd

The Hambledon Club, in the county of Hampshire in England, was a social club that is famous for its organisation of 18th century cricket matches. By the late 1770s it was the foremost cricket club in England. The village of Hambledon is best known as the ‘Cradle of Cricket’. It is thought that Hambledon Club, one of the oldest cricket clubs known, was formed about 1750. Hambledon was England’s leading cricket club from about 1765 until the formation of MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) in 1787.

As one of the players, Martin de Bock, correctly pointed it out, the first cricket ground was actually at Broadhalfpenny Down, some 2 km East of the puzzle location but it was considered to be “too remote” from the village so they moved to Windmill Down, the location of the puzzle.

Hambledon’s great days ended in the 1780s with a shift in focus from the rural counties of Kent, Sussex and Hampshire to metropolitan London where Lord’s was established as the home of the new Marylebone Cricket Club in 1787. However, for the decade up to 1793, Hambledon remained a meeting place for like-minded Royal Navy Officers such as Captains Erasmus Gower, Robert Calder, Charles Powell Hamilton, Mark Robinson, Sir Hyde Parker and Robert Linzee. In May 1791 Lord Hugh Seymour became president of the club but soon afterwards these officers all returned to sea.

Membership declined during the 1790s. On 29 August 1796, fifteen people attended a meeting and amongst them, according to the official minutes, was “Mr Thos Pain, Authour of the rights of Man”! It was certainly a joke for Thomas Paine was then in France, having left England in 1792 shortly before being convicted of seditious libel in absentia. The last meeting was held on 21 September 1796 where the minutes read only that “No Gentlemen were present”.

Those who found it before the hint:

• Paul Voestermans
• Phil Ower
• Garfield
• Martin de Bock
• Eloy Cano
• Lighthouse

And after the hint:

• Graham Hedley
• Centaurea (Welcome!)
• Bernd

As a spin-off to our World Cup series, the Tatran Čierny Balog stadium is a very special football ground located in Čierny Balog, Slovakia, which is the home ground of the local football club TJ Tatran Čierny Balog. The stadium is known for having an active train track that runs through it, even during games.

History
The Čiernohronská railway was built before the stadium itself. The train itself runs on the routes in the Slovak Ore Mountains. The network reached its greatest total length after World War II, with the entire track measuring 131.98 km. Before the suspension of traffic in 1982, only 36 km of the track was in operation. Operation on this track was suspended for a period of time, but in 1992 it was resumed.

It was at the time when the track lost its function that a village football stand was built on the site. Now the train, which serves as an attraction for tourists, runs every day in the main season.

World fame (kind of)
The municipal stadium located in Čierny Balog gained international recognition in late 2015, after a video clip that depicted a train entering the ground went viral. The line is believed to be the only railway in the world to pass through the middle of a football stadium, the tracks running along the front of a grandstand at the stadium belonging to the TJ Tatran Čierny Balog club.

Look at this video:

Those who spotted the railway tracks before the hint:

• Eloy Cano
• Paul Voestermans
• Martin de Bock
• Phil Ower
• Garfield
• Lighthouse

And after the hint:

• Graham Hedley
• Bernd

FIFA was founded on 21 May 1904 at 229 Rue Saint‑Honoré in Paris, inside the offices of the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques. This modest Parisian address became the birthplace of an institution created by seven national federations—France, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland—who sought to unify football’s rules and resolve disputes that plagued early international matches. Robert Guérin, a young journalist and secretary of the USFSA, played a decisive role in rallying these federations and became FIFA’s first president.

The building itself, located in the 1st arrondissement near the presidential palace, served as a practical meeting point for the founders and symbolized Paris’s central role in European sporting culture at the time. From this address, FIFA began laying the foundations for standardized regulations and coordinated international competitions, ultimately enabling the creation of the World Cup in 1930. Although FIFA later moved its headquarters to Zurich, Rue Saint‑Honoré 229 remains a historic landmark frequently referenced during anniversaries and commemorations, including the 120th‑year celebration in 2024, when FIFA leaders returned to Paris to honor the “group of dreamers” who launched the organization there.

Those who found it before the hint:

• Paul Voestermans
• Graham Hedley
• Martin de Bock
• Phil Ower
• Garfield
• Eloy Cano
• Lighthouse

And after the hint:

• Bernd

And this ends our “FIFA World Cup 2026” series.
Congratulations to the winners of this series with a perfect score of 20/20.

• Eloy Cano
• Garfield
• Lighthouse

Råsunda Stadium, Solna, Sweden

It was the Swedish national football stadium. It was located in Solna Municipality in Stockholm and named after the district in Solna where it was located. The stadium was demolished in 2013 after being replaced by Nationalarenan.

It was opened in 1937, although there had already existed stadiums at the site; the earliest opened in 1910. The inaugural match took place on 18 April 1937 when AIK played against Malmö FF, AIK won the match 4–0, with Axel Nilsson scoring the historical first goal. Råsunda had a capacity of 35,000–36,608 depending on usage. The 1910 stadium hosted some of the football and some of the shooting events at the 1912 Summer Olympics.

Råsunda was the first of two stadiums to have hosted the World Cup finals for both men and women. It hosted the men’s final in the 1958 World Cup and the women’s final in the 1995 Women’s World Cup.

The records for both the youngest and oldest goalscorer in a World Cup final were set in this match by Pelé (17 years and 249 days) and Nils Liedholm (35 years, 263 days) respectively. Moreover, the 1958 final also shares the record (with the 1970 and 1998 tournaments) for the greatest winning margin in a final, ending with Brazil 5 – Sweden 2.

Those who found it before the hint:

• Paul Voestermans
• Phil Ower
• Graham Hedley
• Martin de Bock
• Eloy Cano
• Garfield
• Lighthouse

And after the hint:

• Bernd
• krenek

Estado de Israel 525, S2001 Rosario, Santa Fe Province, Argentina

This is Lionel Messi’s childhood home where he was born on 24 June 1987 in Rosario, Santa Fe Province, Argentina.

Long before the Ballon d’Ors, the Champions League triumphs, and lifting the FIFA World Cup, Lionel Messi was just a kid chasing a football through the streets of Rosario.

This neighborhood shaped the boy who would become one of the greatest players the sport has ever known. Just a short distance away, Messi honed his skills with Newell’s Old Boys, where his extraordinary talent first caught the world’s attention.

Today, this unassuming house has become a pilgrimage site for football fans from every corner of the globe. Visitors leave jerseys, scarves, flags, handwritten messages, and murals in tribute to the player who proved that greatness can begin on the most ordinary of streets.

Walk through the streets surrounding Lionel Messi’s childhood home in Rosario, and you’ll find an open-air tribute to the boy who became football’s greatest icon.

The walls of La Bajada, the neighborhood where Messi grew up, are covered with vibrant murals celebrating every stage of his journey—from the kid chasing a ball through the streets to the World Cup-winning captain of Argentina. The most famous, “From Another Galaxy… and From My Neighborhood,” stands opposite the primary school Messi attended, connecting his childhood with the global legacy he would go on to create.

Those who found it before the hint:

• Paul Voestermans
• Eloy Cano
• Martin de Bock
• Phil Ower
• Garfield
• Graham Hedley
• Lighthouse

And after the hint:

• Bernd

• FIFA Museum in Zürich, Switzerland

The FIFA Museum is an association football museum operated by FIFA. The museum is located in Zurich, Switzerland, across town from the FIFA headquarters. It opened on 28 February 2016.

The 3,500 m2 (38,000 sq ft) museum occupies the lower three floors of the renovated Haus zur Enge, a ten-story mixed-use building located in the Enge quarter, across from the Zurich Enge railway station and the FIFA-owned Hotel Ascot. The building also contains a sports bar, a bistro, a café, a library, a museum shop and conference rooms; the upper floors have office spaces and 34 luxury apartments.

The museum exhibits over one thousand objects. These include memorabilia from every FIFA World Cup and FIFA Women’s World Cup, the most famous one being the original FIFA World Cup Trophy. The exhibition features various interactive and multimedia installations such as the biggest pinball machine ever made and an audiovisual media installation called Visions of Football using 8 metres (26 ft) LED screens. In 2017, the museum was nominated for the German Design Award.

Those who found it, all before the hint:

• Graham Hedley
• Eloy Cano
• Paul Voestermans
• Martin de Bock
• Lighthouse
• Phil Ower
• Garfield

Estadio Pocitos, Montevideo, Uruguay

One of only two venues used on the opening day of the inaugural FIFA World Cup on 13 July 1930, Estadio Pocitos holds a unique place in football history. It was here that France’s Lucien Laurent scored the first goal ever recorded in a FIFA World Cup.

Despite its historic significance, the stadium did not stand the test of time. Home to Peñarol in its early years, Estadio Pocitos was eventually demolished as Montevideo expanded, with streets and residential buildings now occupying the site.

A stadium may disappear, but its place in football history remains permanent.

There is a street monument marking the place of the goal post by which the first WC goal occurred. It was made by local architect Eduardo di Mauro who was the winner of the sculpture competition called “In Search of the Lost Goal” which was held in 2006.

Those who found it, all of them before the hint:

• Eloy Cano
• Paul Voestermans
• Martin de Bock
• Graham Hedley
• Zorro the Fox*
• Phil Ower
• Lighthouse
• Garfield

*Message to all players: today, with reverse image search, and very strong AI tools, if you have no clear idea what the puzzle is about, please provide at least the exact coordinates of the puzzle, not only the city or other general location. Otherwise we cannot make sure that you really found the place. Thank you.

This week’s contest was about the maker of the balls used in the FIFA World Cup.

Forward Sports is a Pakistani multi-national company based in Sialkot, Punjab, specializing in the manufacture of sports equipment, primarily soccer balls. The company produces balls for prominent brands including Adidas. Founded in 1991 by Khawaja Masood Akhtar, Forward Sports began its partnership with Adidas in 1994. Since then, it has produced balls for many international events, including the UEFA Champions League on several occasions. It has been the official provider of balls for the 2014 FIFA World Cup (the Brazuca), the 2018 FIFA World Cup (the Telstar 18), the 2022 FIFA World Cup (the Al Rihla), and the 2026 FIFA World Cup (the Trionda).

World Cup balls made by Forward Sports in Sialkot, Pakistan.

Those who found the goal before the hint:

• Graham Hedley
• Eloy Cano
• Paul Voestermans
• Martin de Bock
• Garfield
• Phil Ower
• Lighthouse

And after the hint:

• Zorro the Fox
• donaaronio (welcome back!)