Elias Nerlich plays video games, is an advertising face, runs companies and is club president of his own football club – as content creator EliasN97 he reaches millions of young people. The 24-year-old is hosting his Real Life Eligella Cup for the second time this weekend (September 11/from 2:45 p.m. on RTL) and is bringing together the Who’s Who of the German streaming and YouTube landscape for the small field tournament.
With Trymacs, MontanaBlack, Gamerbrother or Sascha Hellinger, the biggest streamers in the country kick the ball at the cup in the Audi Dome in Munich. You know each other, but for 24-year-old Nerlich it shouldn’t be some kind of class reunion. “The sporting aspect should be in the foreground, even if we know that none of us are professional footballers. There will be stumbles, someone who doesn’t hit the goal and also a few funny scenes. That’s exactly why people are watching us,” said Nerlich in an interview with ntv.de.
“Eli” will be particularly looking forward to the sold-out hall with 5,000 spectators, as well as to the “afterwards”. Talking to people, letting the evening fade away and reading the news the next day about how the fans experienced the event is what makes the event so appealing.
At the premiere of the Eligella Cup, the participants broadcast the event via their own Twitch channels, this time RTL, a television broadcaster, has come on board as a streaming partner. “When I heard about it, I was of course very surprised at first, but also honored that such a big broadcaster wanted to do it with us. It was like in football when a big club approaches you.” The broadcaster relieves Nerlich of an organizational component and work, which the Berliner did not lack after the Delay Sports football club was founded.
Nerlich founded the club together with ex-Hertha professional Sidney Friede, and thousands of spectators now attend the club’s games in the district league C. But Nerlich doesn’t want to know anything about an “influencer club”. “The club was founded by influencers, but the people who play there aren’t. There are four influencers in the 35-man squad. Most of them are just normal buddies of mine.”
And that is a “dream” for the 24-year-old, who, however, is striving for professional structures with delay sports. Then the construct of the 11 friends would no longer be feasible. “Unfortunately, I don’t know that many highly talented footballers who can play in the Oberliga or Verbandsliga,” said Nerlich in an interview. At some point there will come a point when you might have to organize a public trial. “At some point you have to change the structures a little, which is completely normal. But that’s not planned at the beginning.”
After a long injury break, Nerlich will be on the pitch for Delay Sports for the first time in two weeks. But first the Real Life Eligella Cup should be won. And there is already a plan for that. “The good thing about us is that we don’t have anyone who does Ronaldinho. We try to play football together there – that’s how we won the cup last time.”
You can read the whole interview at ntv.de.
