Manchester City Signs Its First eSports Athlete

Manchester City F.C. has announced its fourth signing of the off-season and the name is (probably) unfamiliar to most: Eighteen-year-old Kieran ‘Kez’ Brown is the first eSports player to sign with the Mancunian club. The York native took to Twitter to make the announcement:

Happy to announce I’m the first e-Sport FIFA player for @ManCity. Something New. Something Different. I look forward to seeing how this goes.

As far as his role in the organization goes, Brown told the press the following:

It’s exciting; it’s something new for the club and it’s something new for me. I’m going to livestream on Twitch, I’m going to be making videos for Manchester City’s YouTube channel and I’m going to be playing some City fans and representing City in future tournaments, which I’m looking forward to. This is an opportunity which not many people get the chance to do and I couldn’t turn it down.

Brown isn’t the first eSports signing in the Premier League, though: West Ham reached a deal with Sean “Dragonn” Allen earlier this year. The honor of European eSports heavyweight, however, goes to VFL Wolfsburg. The German club signed FIFA heavyweights David “DaveBTW” Bytheway, Benedikt ‘Salz0r’ Salzer and Daniel ‘Dani’ Fink. FC Schalke 04, meanwhile, recently signed their own League of Legends team.

All of this bodes extremely well for the future of eSports. For the young Brown, whose Twitter bio reads: “When I was younger my aim was to play for a Premier League club,” this is all a dream come true.