Pretty certain it’s “jouer au football“.

It’s the verb that drives the preposition. The verb jouer has many possible meanings; depending on the meaning its complement(s) may start with this or that preposition or none.

For a sport or a game, the preposition is à.

Il joue au football.
Il joue aux échecs.

For a musical instrument, the preposition is de.

Il joue du piano.

The basic idea of the distinction is that jouer à is for participating in an activity, while jouer de is for using a physical implement. For a physical implement that represents a game by metonymy, it’s still jouer à: “jouer aux dés”, “jouer aux boules”. Jouer de is not in very common use outside musical instruments.

I really have a fun way to remember it..
JSD for sports…that is jouer de and sports u can remember it by the indian baller jaspinder….

If one is jouer de the other one jouer a is obvviously for the musical instrument…hope u got it

Akshara

Au is for team sports
Eg football
Du is for individual sports
Eg tennis
Faire ils for an activity
Eg skiing

As far as I can see, you use ‘jouer de’ for a musical instrument (jouer du piano, jouer de la guitare, jouer de la flûte etc.) et ‘jouer à’ for any game or sport (jouer aux échecs, jouer aux dames, jouer au volley, jouer au tennis, jouer à la pétanque).