FC Basel enters e-sports and signs Swiss champion

Boller was able to win the so far only title of Swiss champion in the football simulation game "FIFA" in 2014. Luca Boller joins FC Basel 1893 with immediate effect from the German e-sports management agency B Part Gaming and will be presented at the FCB stand at Muba on Friday, May 12, 2017, at 3:00 pm.

The trained banker has qualified for the Virtual Bundesliga in Germany four times in his e-sports career. Most recently, he took part in the final tournament of Germany's 20 best FIFA players over the Easter weekend at the DFB Museum in Dortmund, where he was unfortunate to be eliminated after the group stage. In addition to his biggest success to date, winning the Swiss championship, Boller has also won more than 50 offline tournaments in Switzerland as well as Germany. He also recently secured his eligibility for the Swiss FIFA Championship, which will be played on October 15 in Bern, by winning a qualifying tournament.

Luca Boller is thrilled to be the very first eSports player ever in the service of FC Basel 1893. "It was important to me that the topic of e-sports was taken seriously at a football club, and I had no reservations about that at FCB," explains Boller after his move to the 20-time Swiss champions from Team B Part Gaming, which intends to focus more on training young players from now on. "I felt the professionalism in and around the club from the first contact. But I didn't have to think much about it anyway. Who would say no when the best football club in Switzerland is interested in signing you as an e-sportsman?"

Focus on the FIFA series

"E-sports is an exciting topic that offers a football club completely new opportunities to present itself as a brand to a younger target audience," says Martin Blaser, Director of Marketing, Sales & Business Development at FC Basel 1893, explaining Rotblau's e-sports commitment. "As a club, we made a conscious decision to be active only in the area of "FIFA" and are very pleased that we managed to win Luca Boller, one of the most high-profile Swiss eSports players in this field, for our project, who has already proven his impressive skills several times."

Boller, who will play for the red and blue team under the pseudonym "FC Basel 1893 LuBo" and with the number 77 on his back, emphasizes that, in parallel to his sporting ambitions, he is also pursuing the goal of "bringing e-sports closer to the fans of FC Basel 1893. In the future, he will be supported by a team that will be gradually expanded and represent FCB in national and international competitions.