He plays video games, is an advertising face, runs companies and is the president of his own football club - as one of the best-known and most influential content creators in Germany, Elias Nerlich 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. In an interview with ntv.de, Nerlich talks about the role football plays in his life, how his club Delay Sports Berlin is developing and why streaming is like therapy for him.
ntv.de: Mr. Nerlich, for the second time you are switching from the console to the round leather for your Eligella Cup. This time the tournament will take place in the sold out Audi Dome in Munich. How did the sudden return to the pitch come about?
Elias Nerlich: You can't speak of sudden. My life consists of football and only the blow of fate with the broken fibula prevented me from playing again for a long time. It's now working again, but I'm already noticing that it's not the same as it used to be. But I was always interested in football. Now I have the ability to use my power to set up events without having to be really active on the soccer field. I would have liked to have held a tournament like this four years ago, but I didn't have the opportunity then.
What has changed in the past four years?
On the one hand, of course, the range. The projects live from it. It wouldn't do so well if I had done it back then with 1000 subscribers. On the other hand, there are contacts and management. I used to have my management, but now I'm a seasoned e-sportsman and content creator.
With Trymacs, MontanaBlack, Gamerbrother or Sascha Hellinger, the concentrated reach of streaming and YouTube in Germany comes together at the tournament. Is that also a kind of class reunion because many of the players in the cup know each other personally?
Class reunion is not a big issue now, of course it's nice to see each other again and have fun. The sporting aspect should be in the foreground, even if we know that none of us are professional footballers. There will be stumbles, someone not hitting the goal and some funny scenes too. That's exactly why people look at us (I would delete the "yes"). If you want to see professional football, then go to the Bundesliga stadium. But the main focus is to have fun and give back to the community. It's not just my community that gathers there, but that of Germany's biggest streamers and YouTubers.
What are you most looking forward to? Is there anything that particularly excites you?
For the first time we have an event with spectators on site, and it's sold out. Just the fact that we get a hall full at all shows that we have really achieved a lot in recent years. The tickets were all gone after a few hours. What I find really cool is that after - talking to people after the tournament, ending the evening and reading the news the next day about how the spectators experienced the event.
With RTL, a television station has joined as a streaming partner. The event will be broadcast on RTL. What did you think when you heard about the station's interest?
When I heard about it, I was of course very surprised, but also honored that such a large broadcaster would like to do this with us. It was like football when a big club approaches you.
So the media frenzy is increasing. How has that changed since Delay Sports, with which you compete in the Berlin district league C, was founded?
Before that I was used to giving interviews. But I have to say, since Delay Sports it's gotten even bigger. It is constantly reported. In the end, the media doesn't care whether it's positive or negative. The main thing is that a lot of people are interested in it. And that's the case with Delay Sports. I don't want to put any pressure on the guys, because of course the media always push certain things. For example, if we are referred to as an "influencer association", then that is not true at all.
"Why not?"
The club was founded by influencers, but the people who play there aren't. There are four influencers in the 35-man squad. Most are just regular buddies of mine. They work as police officers, are students or in training. When you suddenly see yourself on the Sunday evening sports show, you think, 'Where did I end up here? I just want to play some football.' And that's exactly what it's supposed to be. Of course we are pleased that so many people are interested in it. There is the thought of becoming bigger in sport at some point, but that's all so far away. We just want to gamble a bit. It's a dream to start your own football club with your friends - and that's exactly what we did.
Are you also a kind of media coach for your fellow players?
Sidney Friede as a former professional from Hertha BSC, the coach and I - there are actually only a handful of people who speak to the media. My teammates understood that everything is filmed here. That's why they don't let themselves be provoked. As soon as we make any mistakes, the media are the first to report on us, because they know that of course it will be very well received. If we lose a game, get a red card, then an article will appear somewhere about it. And you won't find the supporters in the comments. But my father said to me and still says to me: 'You make a lot of people happy and in a way that you can't possibly imagine'. This is an important message for me. If I make 900,000 people happy and 100,000 people aren't, then 100,000 is still a huge number. But in comparison, with Delay Sports, we give back to so many people. It's a great thing and I stand behind it.
In the future, Delay Sports will also play with the logo of the German Cancer Aid instead of that of a shirt sponsor. What's behind it?
With Delay Sports we have huge reach and lots of ways to draw attention to things. That doesn't happen very often in sports. Sponsors and advertising on the jersey, everyone knows that. That's not a bad thing, after all, the club has to be able to support itself financially. We have a lot of expenses, but we don't have to pay our players - we don't have that. We have opportunities to make money from future jersey sales, memberships or tickets. And that's why we support the German Cancer Aid financially and - which is actually almost more important - we make this topic bigger with our reach, even if it's maybe only one percent. We're not saving lives with it, but we're drawing attention to something that the young target group isn't familiar with. And that's worth its weight in gold.
You have already mentioned the young target group and the growth of the club. Is there a separate youth department planned?
Yes, we definitely have to provide youth teams in the next few years. That's what the Berlin Football Association says. But I think that won't be a problem. We could certainly open ten junior teams if we were interested. In terms of logistics and organization, we might not be able to do that at the moment, but the willingness of the people is there.
There was criticism from the DFB that video games ensured that the clubs lost young talent and club life suffered as a result. Now you are accompanied by an initiator from the gaming sector who has just triggered a movement in the opposite direction.
Yes, that's right. I think times have just changed. You used to meet up with friends and go banging. You can do a lot online these days. That's true. And maybe it's something really refreshing now when someone who comes from this scene does exactly the opposite.
If you look at the long-term goals of Delay Sports, the club should eventually have professional structures. The higher you go, the more the club may move away from this construct you just created. There are still your friends who play football together in their own club.
I know, I know. If at some point we should ascend several times in a row, then we will no longer be able to do so. Unfortunately, I don't know that many highly talented footballers who could play in the Oberliga or Verbandsliga. Maybe someday we'll do a public trial. And at some point there comes a point when you also pay the players - in Berlin, some of the payments are already made from the district league onwards. At some point you will have to change the structures a bit, which is completely normal. But now at the beginning that is not planned.
And when will you be back on the field yourself?
Now at the Real Life Eligella Cup of course and in two weeks I'm supposed to play my first game at Delay Sports. But I realize I've been out for a long time. My injuries threw me back a lot. I'm not in pain, but I can tell that things aren't going well. Not football, but physical - how my body behaves after a sprint, for example. It's not very stable yet. I'll never be 100 percent again. I'm really more the face off the field and Sidney is the face on the field.
Aren't you worried you might be a target on the pitch?
I've talked about it with others who have started a club, are in the public eye and play themselves. These people are targeted harder. Maybe people find it funny kicking me over. We'll have to see how we do it, because I have so many projects and so little time. So it can't be that I somehow can't walk or that I'm battered.
You stream almost every day, have several companies and are now an advertising figure for adidas. You can even record your vacation with videos on YouTube. How do you reconcile all of this?
Streaming doesn't feel like work, I have to say. It's like therapy for me. Sitting down in the evening, talking to my chat, forgetting a bit about the day - that's actually pretty cool. What comes before that is stressful, that is, the work in the company. Then it's about a new flavor at Vitavate, new designs for the fashion brand Elevate, possible commitments for my e-sports team Focus or the fitness app "PerformAll". There's a lot of stuff, and Delay Sports adds to that. It's really difficult in the long run. And you definitely need people to support you, because you also have a private life - otherwise you'll go crazy at some point.
If you understand streaming as a kind of therapy, then the anticipation for FIFA 23 cannot be that great. The video game doesn't exactly stand for relaxation.
FIFA 23 won't be relaxing (laughs), but the anticipation of FIFA is always there. It's kind of a love-hate relationship. It's my main game, so to speak, I grew up with it in terms of reach. I didn't like FIFA 22 that much though and stopped playing it early on. And because I then also streamed other games, I was able to reach a completely different community. I used to only have FIFA and now people have come along who don't have anything to do with it.
That means it is played what you feel like doing or what the community is in the mood for?
That mixes. I make a selection and let them vote. But I don't do anything that the stream doesn't want to do.
As a final question: who will win the second Real Life Eligella Cup?
Yes we! It will be difficult because the teams are stronger and the level is higher. But I'm in good spirits. In my team, however, four players are injured. The good thing about us is that we don't have anyone who pretends to be Ronaldinho. We try to play football together - that's how we won the cup last time.
Michael Bauer spoke to Elias Nerlich
