VfL Wolfsburg, one of the best football teams in one of the best leagues on the planet, is branching out from actual team sports into the world of esports.
So they’ve gone and hired two pro FIFA players, who are on the club’s books as actual employees, and who will wear Wolfsburg’s kit while playing.
One of them, Englishman David Bytheway, was interviewed by the BBC on his hiring, saying “It was just something I was doing at home to start with, just playing my friends and wanting to be the best out of them, and all of a sudden I’m a part of a football club.”
Note he didn’t actually have to move to Wolfsburg; he’s just on their FIFA esports team, so it’s not quite the “move around Europe every two years” lifestyle that actual football players jet around in. Yet.
“Right now it’s not exactly historic, but in five years’ time when we look back at this we’ll think, ‘Wow they really started something here’.
“Less than a year, I hope, before the first Premier League team does this as well.”