Two sports providers can use different IDs for the same player, but a shared name is not enough to join their records. Main teams, reserve sides, women's teams and unrelated works can have similar labels. Candidate retrieval should help a reviewer inspect that ambiguity rather than hide it behind a single automatic match.
Sports Team and Player Identity Candidate Matcher connects your sourceId to examined Wikidata candidates and their structured evidence. It returns candidate reports, not verified identities. A resolved QID is a specific source entity; it does not prove that your provider record refers to that entity.
Retain your provider's identifier
The installed public example uses an explicit sourceId for each query. One query searches a name; the other reads a supplied QID. This article validates the input shape only and makes no new claim about the current candidate list or current Wikidata facts.
{
"queries": [
{
"sourceId": "team-home",
"name": "Bayern Munich",
"sportQid": "Q2736"
},
{
"sourceId": "player-1",
"qid": "Q1426",
"name": "Roger Federer",
"sportQid": "Q847"
}
],
"candidateLimit": 3
}
Keep your original provider namespace with sourceId in the destination. The same short source ID from two providers is not one global key. Save the candidate report separately from an approved crosswalk, with reviewer, decision time and the source revision used for that decision.
Distinguish search scope from identity confidence
Name search is English and bounded by candidateLimit, with a maximum of five. The result order follows the source rather than a calibrated confidence score. One returned candidate can mean one candidate was examined, not that no alternative exists. An empty examined result likewise does not establish global nonexistence.
When a QID is supplied, the Actor reads that entity directly and can compare the accompanying name with labels and aliases. Name agreement normalizes text, but remains name agreement. Do not promote an exact label match into proof of the correct club, player or historical organization.
Interpret constraints as exact observed claims
sportQid, countryQid, nationalityQid and typeQid refer to different Wikidata properties. Country and citizenship are not interchangeable. A requested claim can be observed, absent from the observed values, or unstated. Preserve those states rather than compressing them into one Boolean called verified.
The matcher does not traverse subclass hierarchies or interpret temporal qualifiers. A claim observed in the source does not automatically establish current membership or eligibility. qualifyingCandidateQids records candidates satisfying the supplied exact constraints; when none are supplied, it includes all returned candidates. That field is a filter result, not an approved identity crosswalk.
Preserve revisions and review partial work
Real reports include source URLs, retrieval times, revision IDs and response hashes with Wikidata attribution. Keep those receipts when copying the evidence to another system. They explain which source observation supported a later human mapping, even if Wikidata changes afterwards.
Before importing a batch, require an explicit review outcome for ambiguous candidates and inspect which sourceIds were actually delivered after a partial run. Rerunning the whole batch can charge again for already resolved reports. For a safe local contract check, validate the sourceId uniqueness and candidate limit without making source requests. For a later authorized platform check, inspect Dataset evidence and actual charge counters before deciding that an uncertain run needs repetition.
Price and verification scope
FREE-tier event prices read on 24 October 2026 are $0.005 for apify-actor-start and $0.003 for result-found. Start-event count can depend on allocated memory; other account tiers have their own rates. Check the listing's current billable unit and the platform's run spending limit before executing an example. Input row or result caps are separate from Max total charge. A free diagnostic does not necessarily remove the platform start charge.
This article is pinned to public latest build 0.1.1 (eoDXifyBMDq70R7oa) at the recorded read time. Source, input and pricing were read from Apify; no new cloud build or run was started. The supplied example and any synthetic local checks do not establish current source facts, cloud delivery or customer outcomes.
Inspect the Actor's current contract and pricing.
AI-assisted writing. Source contracts and verification limits are documented above.
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