The move of football clubs into eSports teams continues as one of Manchester’s power houses picks up their own FIFA player, following in West Ham’s footsteps from earlier this year. Kieran ‘Kez’ Brown, from York, England, will be representing Manchester City FC at events and on Twitch, as well as making videos for their YouTube channel.
Perhaps it’s time for the main squad to start training their LoL champions.
The club have made an introduction video for their new player, where he has some comments regarding what’s coming next for him:
As for Man City, their SVP of media and innovation, Diego Gigliani, says that “this is a natural evolution for Manchester City. We’ve been very involved with our partner, EA SPORTS, and the FIFA franchise for some time.
“We will be a bigger presence at gaming tournaments, we will have more content through our digital channels and we will activate even more with our fans at matches and Club events.”
While German club FC Shalke went straight for a League of Legends team, the British route of grabbing up FIFA players is significantly different. There’s more familiarity there for their fans, obviously, and it means those players can provide more than just the possibility of tournament winnings – it’s someone who is excellent at a game a lot of their fans play. It’s also a lot cheaper, with LCS spots and CS:GO teams now being valued in six and seven figure amounts.
Man City’s announcement very specifically uses the phrasing of their “first” eSports signing. Hopefully this means they, and other clubs, are interested in expanding into the more traditional games as well – especially as Overwatch takes its place on the world stage.