Chelsea legend Ruud Gullit takes bold step with FIFA 18 in hope of taking eSports ‘out of the dark ages’ and into mainstream
Dutch icon talks his decision to set up Team Gullit - a FIFA academy helping three teenage players compete at the pro level of video games
Sponsored by
THE world of professional video games is not one you would expect a retired football legend to be involved with.
Especially not a player as decorated as Ruud Gullit, a Ballon d'Or winner who was a key part of the dominant AC Milan and Netherlands sides of the late Eighties and early Nineties.
But here he is.
Now 55, the former Chelsea and Newcastle United manager has taken an unprecedented step into eSports - you know, that digital amphitheatre of pro gamers, streamers and YouTubers that can seem an alien concept to those over the age of about 25.
For many people, eSports may conjure an image of nerdy teenagers stuck in their bedroom and never going outside.
That couldn't be further from the truth and that perception is what Gullit wants to help change.
Gullit hasn't just become a fan of FIFA, the wildly popular football franchise that has sold more than 10million copies this year.
He's now set up his own academy - - the first of its kind, covering costs and providing three teenage gamers with expert coaching and analysis in the hopes of developing them to become the very best in the world.
'LOOK AROUND' Chelsea boss Antonio Conte should be keeping eye out for another job, insists Ruud Gullit
It is an unprecedented step for a former professional footballer.
Gullit doesn't play FIFA himself, but has been aware of it since his time as player-manager of Chelsea, when he was invited by EA Sports to watch a digital World Cup in its fledgling years.
Ruud Gullit honours
Feyenoord
Eredivisie: 1984
KNVB Cup: 1984
PSV
Eredivisie: 1986, 1987
AC Milan
Serie A: 1988, 1992, 1993
European Cup: 1989, 1990
Sampdoria
Coppa Italia: 1994
Netherlands
European Championships: 1988
Chelsea
FA Cup: 1997 (as player-manager)
Individual awards
Ballon d'Or: 1987 (runner-up in 1988)
Dutch Footballer of the Year: 1984, 1986
Euro team of the tournament: 1988, 1992
Premier League Team of the Year: 1996
Chelsea Player of the Year: 1996
In recent years he has become one of the game's Icons - a highly-rated unlockable player from years gone by - and attended the FIFA Interactive World Cup last year.
Gullit tells SunSport when we meet in Amsterdam: "EA asked me to be one of the legends, but I still didn't realise how big it was.
"I was astonished by the popularity of the sport and how many people were there to be part of that moment.
"People were coming to me and saying how popular I was in the game and how good I was in the game.
"At the world championships last year in London, I met some of the players, saw what was going on, what people were doing.
"Then I realised 'hey, this is big'.
"Seven million people participated in the world championship, that's enormous."
Gullit was on stage to hand eventual winner Gorilla (real name Spencer Ealing) his trophy and prize money, a massive cheque for £156,000.
Gorilla, aged 21, plays full time and is sponsored by Unilad, has a coach and a manager, commands hundreds of thousands of social media followers and views on YouTube.
Gullit has two sons and both of them play... but admits he's not quite cracked the game himself.
"My son and step-son both play, I see them," he adds, "I can't play.
"But I see the tactics, what they do and how global it is.
"It gave me the possibility to get [eSports] out of this... corner.
"Where people think they are all goofy people who just sit at home. It's not that.
"With Team Gullit we help them, with the parents, not to sit there too long because school is important as well.
"We help them with tactics and to become better players."
It's a massively progressive step from Gullit and one that has already seen him earn praise from his fellow ex-pros.
"It's a different step. I was speaking with other pros... I saw [Alessandro[ Del Piero and he said 'yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a good idea'.
"The pros nowadays they all play it. Against each other, online. It's a huge market.
"The old school think that things always stay the time.
"But, because of the age of my kids, 16 and 18, to understand them a little, I have to think what keeps them going, what goes on in their mind.
"We can't always think 'in the old days we played outside.' This is the new age, they have new things.
"Now, footballers wear headphones, we used to play cards - you have to stop with all that.
"You have to understand and move with them.
"It's a new age, new world, new technology, we didn't have that because there was none. No internet, we'd just started with Pacman.
"But now they have this game."
One of the three players selected for Team Gullit is Dani Visser, a 16-year-old still in school who has been playing the FIFA franchise since he was eight.
When applications closed, more than 1,500 players had applied to be on the team.
Dani says: "They came to me and told me about Team Gullit, how it worked, and I thought it was a cool idea."
Dani has been a regular in the top 100 over the last year and has reached as high as No 54 in the world rankings.
In January he played in the FIFA eWorld Cup in Barcelona - as the youngest player at the tournament - although he didn't make it out of the group stage.
Now with Team Gullit, where he gets weekly coaching sessions and tactical help, he hopes to reach the top 50 in the world on a regular basis and qualify for multiple World Cups.
But the questions every parent is asking is, how much does it affect his schoolwork and how much time does he spend glued to the screen?
"The (balance) is very good," says Dani. "My school results aren't bad - they are pretty good actually.
"On weekdays I don't play that much, not what people expect.
"I only play a lot on the weekends, Friday to Monday maybe 40 games."
How will Team Gullit help him develop?
"We analyse games," he says. "If I lose games over the weekend I have recorded it, we watch it and talk, we analyse the whole match and see what I did wrong and try to make it better."
Gullit adds: "The support is, of course, to help them play better. The good thing is we have Skype to help.
"We have a manager, someone to do the tactics, all these kind of things.
"And with the parents. It's a lot more than just play, play, play.
"It's a bigger thing to give them guidelines."
With certain age groups, 12 to 16-year-olds for example, eSports is almost as popular as real football.
Unable to watch a live match with their own money because of soaring ticket prices, youngsters in that age group instead watch matches and follow players online.
This disconnect with young fans is part of the reason professional teams, Manchester City, West Ham and Ajax among them, have their own full-time eSports players - to represent them at competitions, build brand recognition and a rapport with young fans.
Gullit doesn't see eSports ever overtaking real football, but does not see why the two can't coexist.
"It's not more important to [young people] than real football, but if they don't have the talent to play real football, they can still enjoy it," says Gullit.
"[Dani] is still playing football - maybe not at the level that he would like to - but he has the skills to do this... so, why not.
"We don't want him to play all day, all night. He needs to be selective, concentrate on school, also his social life and then his game life.
"There is a professional FIFA league in Holland, it's televised. Sometimes there are more people watching these games than the first division.
"Kids are all over YouTube and social media, always watching what these guys are doing.
"It's much bigger than people think."
MOST READ IN FOOTBALL
The Dutch master finishes by saying he hopes that his involvement in the fledgling sport can help make it more mainstream, more acceptable to the naysayers who speak from a place of ignorance - as well as develop the young players on the books of Team Gullit.
"I want to give eSports an extra boost, to get it out of the dark ages and make it a more acceptable thing.
"For people to say 'this is real'.
"The most important thing for me is to help these players, to give them the possibility to become better.
"Because there isn't. If we have pro people who can help them become better in this game, that will help them get somewhere [in life]."