On November 16th, Berlin experienced a remarkable clash of opposites. On one side stood BFC Dynamo, 10-time champions of the former German Democratic Republic and regular participants in European Cups in the 1970s and 1980s. On the other, stood Delay Sports, a district league team founded in 2021 and led by an ensemble of influencers, Twitch streamers and, ultimately, entrepreneurs.
A clash between two fundamentally different clubs was made possible by the Berlin State Cup and sportingly, the gap was immediately clear. Fourth division team and clear favourites Dynamo led 5-0 after 45 minutes and won 12-0 in the end.
However, one can't help feeling that just as quickly as the former East German giant and current regional league team lost relevance after German reunification, Delay Sports is currently on the rise.
They entered the league in the summer of 2022 with no small amount of derision, but have gone through two seasons without losing a point and fought their way up to the ninth-highest competition, Kreisliga A.
A few weeks ago, they suffered their first-ever competitive defeat against Hilalspor. Nevertheless, the team is currently on track to achieve the goal of five promotions in the first five years set by the club's founder.
Speaking of founders, Elias Nerlich, long known as "Eligella" on Twitch and other social media platforms, is a true revolutionary in German amateur football. The 26-year-old has more than two million followers on his YouTube channels alone and is reaching similar numbers on Twitch, Instagram and other social networks. He's grown into streaming video games, and his channels are now a mix of e-sports, vlogs and reaction videos.
But Delay Sports isn't just a marketing project for the Berlin native. Nerlich is an avid football fan and played in the sixth-highest league in Brandenburg himself until he was 19. An injury he suffered then put a damper on his sporting career.
In 2018, he was signed by the e-sports department of the then-Bundesliga club Hertha BSC. However, the until recently unknown youngster from Steglitz quickly became too big a mouthful for Hertha.
He left the club in 2021 to focus on his own projects. Delay Sports is one of them and promises to be perhaps the biggest in the coming years. In Kreisliga A, Berliners' matches are often watched by several thousand spectators - by comparison, the average in the rest of the league is around 150 fans.
Mostly young fans come to watch guys they otherwise only know from the internet. For example, former German international Sidney Friede, who had to retire due to injury a few years ago and is now a successful streamer himself, plays here. Junior Torunarigha, whose brother Jordan also played for a long time in the capital and now plays for Gent, is also in the team. A familiar name on the coaching bench is former second-division professional Kevin Pannewitz.
'Without Wi-Fi you have no chance'
The game against Dynamo was probably the biggest one yet, with 4,500 spectators watching the match at the Sportforum Hohenschönhausen, which was sold out. The BFC fans chanted provocatively "without Wi-Fi you have no chance".
But those who expected a heated atmosphere and a kind of turf war between the Lichtenbergs were wrong. The stands were mostly quiet and respect prevailed after the final whistle.
"I take my hat off to what you are doing," said BFC coach Dennis Kutrieb at the post-match press conference.
The rejection and ridicule that Delay Sports faced in the early years in many parts of Germany seems to be gradually subsiding. And why not? At a time when it is becoming increasingly difficult for traditional clubs to attract young target groups, Elias Nerlich has opted for a different approach. And with the match against Dynamo, Berlin's influential club is unlikely to stop there.