💡 The idea
Football Small Talk was born out of a simple need: being able to hold a conversation with someone who eats, sleeps and breathes football — without having to actually eat, sleep and breathe football yourself.
Maybe your colleague won’t stop talking about Barcelona. Maybe your mate is devastated that Arsenal lost. Maybe you’re heading into a Monday morning meeting and you know it’s going to come up.
This tool gets you ready in 30 seconds.
⚙️ How it works
Pick a team. The page shows you:
- League table — so you know where they stand
- Recent results — the last 5 matches with scores
- Latest news — pulled from local and international sports media
- 6 conversation starters — 3 positive and 3 critical, generated by our specially trained small talk AI agent based on the actual news and results
Everything is updated every morning so it stays relevant.
🛠️ Tech stack
- Node.js + Express — lightweight server, no database needed
- ESPN API — league tables and match results (free, no key required)
- News gathered from: The Guardian, BBC Sport, Marca, Mundo Deportivo, Daily Record, Herald Scotland, The Scotsman, TV2 Sport, Le Parisien, Gazzetta dello Sport, Aftonbladet, Expressen, Fotboll Direkt
- OpenAI gpt-4o-mini — generates the conversation starters from real news context
- Cron jobs — all 64 teams across 4 leagues updated automatically every morning
- Let’s Encrypt — free SSL
🏆 Leagues covered
- 🏴 Premier League — 20 clubs
- 🇪🇸 La Liga — 20 clubs
- 🏴 Scottish Premiership — 12 clubs
- 🇩🇰 Danish Superliga — 12 clubs
- 🇫🇷 Ligue 1 — 18 clubs
- 🇩🇪 Bundesliga — 18 clubs
- 🇮🇹 Serie A — 20 clubs
- 🇸🇪 Allsvenskan — 16 clubs
📍 Made in Denmark
Built by a Dane (Anders Blauenfeldt) who has little interest in football but needed help to survive football conversations. Free to use, no sign-up, no tracking. If you have questions or comments please send an email.
