footballer vs player

footballer and player both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
footballer	Yes	No	No	No
player	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, player is a hypernym of footballer; that is, player is a word with a broader meaning than footballer:

Other hypernyms of footballer include athlete, jock, participant.

footballer (noun)	player (noun)
an athlete who plays American football	a theatrical performer
	a person who participates in or is skilled at some game
	someone who plays a music as a profession
	a person who pursues a number of different social and sexual partners simultaneously
	someone who takes part in an activity