Being a professional footballer seems like a career that would consume all of your time. Yet, for Christian Fuchs –Premier League winner and current Leicester City left-back– it’s just one of many. Somehow, on top of dedicating countless hours to maintaining his standing as one the best players in the world, he’s also found the time to set up a number of side businesses.
His latest venture? The brilliantly named ‘No Fuchs Given’ esports. Despite having only been established in early 2018, the organisation has already signed some of the world’s top FIFA players, and now it looks like Fuchs is poised to dominate the virtual pitch too.
It’s common knowledge that a lot of pro footballers are big gamers, after all, it was only a few weeks ago that some of Tottenham Hotspur’s biggest names were playing alongside Ninja on stream, but there aren’t many that have taken the plunge directly into the world of esports.
Even in the wider world of sports there are only a few notable examples of active players starting up their own organisations, notably NFL player Rodger Saffold who owns Rise Nation or NBA player Jonas Jerebko who owns Renegades. But for Fuchs, the world of esports offers a lot of opportunities — especially when it comes to winning cool dad points.
When a Footballer Fuchs with esports
“I definitely have to point my finger on my son,” says Fuchs after discussing his esports venture on a panel at the Esports Insider London conference. “He simply followed several gamers where at first I didn’t get why. I’m a little bit older. I was born in the eighties. So, for me, it was getting out, getting some fresh air and playing with the ball outside. But… times change. 30 years later people are starting to follow gamers [instead]. In this age of social media, everybody has their own Twitch account and YouTube. It was interesting to me to see how passionate he was about it.”
The fact that Fuchs didn’t really get esports was surprising. Almost all sports stars who have entered the world of esports have at least been a fan of the games, if not the esports scene around them. It also sounds a little worrying for the rapidly growing scene that someone with little knowledge would enter that world.
As anyone who’s followed the world’s fastest growing sporting industry will attest, we have seen countless times that those who don’t know the scene often struggle. Sensibly then, Fuchs knew it would be a bad idea to come in with little knowledge of the ins and outs of esports, even if his experience in the sporting world would offer him advantages that few other owners can boast.
Sporting heroes and virtual virtuosos
So, after finding some esports experts to work with, No Fuchs Given esports was founded, and currently is home to some up and coming FIFA players, as well as some bigger names such as former FIFA World Champion Mohamad Al-Bacha. While bringing in big names is an obvious move to get your team noticed, Christian admirably seems to also have a focus on discovering and nurturing new talent, hoping to build strong players up so they too can become the best in the world.
“I’m trying to help talent to expose themselves, to help them promote themselves publicly, to achieve their goals,” says Fuchs. “It’s not necessarily that I want to keep them playing with my academy. If their goal is to join [another] team then I want to help them, support them on their way there, to promote them to teams, to get the connections with the teams. But it’s also about showing them ways how to [improve] their social media standing, [teaching them] how to communicate with fans and how to grow their fan base.”
With years of building his own personal brand under his belt, Fuchs certainly knows how to help his players in this department. While he may not be in the best position to coach them on the actual gaming side of things, his time spent at the top of the footballing world means he can undoubtedly offer his experience in many other areas.
Despite many sports fans complaints otherwise, Fuchs understands that the inner workings of the esports industries are almost identical to his own. So, much like a football manager would in the beautiful game, Fuchs is on hand to help players build their brands, navigate the murky world of contracts or simply just to have them find success in an incredibly results-driven environment.
Adding legitimacy to esports
Fortunately, as a veteran on the football field, he is used to taking on more of a leadership role when working with players that are quite years younger than him.
“They are all very different characters, which you also have in every football team, so I feel confident [managing them],” says Fuchs. “Some are quiet, some are crazy –honestly crazy– and some are very professional, we have all of them. But I think there are a lot of similarities between pro gamers, when I compare… my FIFA gamers, to footballers. They also have to cope with situations where they have a lot of pressure, where they are in emergency situations where they need to score a goal.”
In the wider world of esports, many of the top teams are bringing in sports psychologists to try and help them overcome these issues that almost every player faces. Some, like No Fuchs Given’s star player Mohamad Al-Bacha (who won the FIFA Interactive World Cup in 2016 after being 3-1 down as the clock ticked into the 90th minute) naturally do well in pressure situations, but many more have crumbled as the pressure builds and championships slip out of their reach.
Under Pressure
“It’s all about how you cope with this, with the pressure that you obviously experience,” says Fuchs. “I believe I have throughout my career –which is 17 years long now– experienced some situations where there was a lot of pressure and I wanna pass on this experience to those younger people as well.”
It’s clear that Fuchs is a hands-on owner, and wants the best for his players, which is why he is prepared to use his expertise from the world of sport to help progress his esports stars. Throughout the interview, he mentions how he wants to build his players up, and help them further their careers. But of course, he has a few other responsibilities that he also has to manage. For most esports owners it is a full-time job, but Fuchs is confident he can manage all of his ventures and still make sure that his esports team gets the level of attention it needs.
“Well, obviously I have a couple of other things which is a clothing line, which is a football academy, which is esports but then I should run around and kick some balls again also in my spare time,” jokes Fuchs. “So, I try to split all my projects up equally, especially everything around my job being a professional footballer. So obviously it’s not always possible to give the same attention to every project, but over the course of a year I try to split it up equally so that every single one of them gets equal attention. So that I can obviously run it properly and make the best out of it.”
In it to win it
Of course, as with any competitor Fuchs wants his team to win. And he will be doing everything in his power to make that happen. But he often reinforced that really that isn’t the ultimate goal for him, and neither is building No Fuchs Given into the biggest name in esports. He just wants to support his players and offer them opportunities they may not otherwise get, and mentions that in the future he could move into other titles if it made sense. But for now FIFA is the main focus, and where Fuchs seems to have a good plan.
“I’m very ambitious with it, I wanna win titles” says Fuchs. “I wanna make the players that I’m hiring happy and I wanna support them to achieve their goals. If that means we’re gonna grow to the mega force in the esports industry, happy days. But for me it’s about the players, not so much about the company, I wanna take care of the players that I’m hiring and make them happy. And if that means that No Fuchs Given is growing then I’m very happy with that.”
It will certainly be interesting to see how No Fuchs Given grows and if they do expand into other games. However what will be more interesting is if Fuchs can inspire more Premier League players to join the esports scene. He did hint that he has had conversations with a teammate about doing something in esports, but refused to go into further detail.
Even if that doesn’t end up happening he has already created history by being the fire Premier League footballer to start their own organisation, and it could prove to be an inspired decision. He may not be the best FIFA player in the Premier League, but his experience in the world of sport should give him and his players a head start over many other esports organisations.
