YouTubers Tobi ‘TBJZL’ Brown and Manny will be getting trials with Crawley Town after the English Football League club scouted the Sidemen Charity Match for players. Though, some fans aren’t impressed.
Over the years, as the Sidemen Charity Match has grown in stature, plenty of fans have claimed that their favorite content creators could step up a level and actually play football regularly.
Some YouTubers have joined semi-professional clubs in the past, but no one has made the step up to play in the actual professional ranks. Well, Crawley Town, who currently plays in League 2 of the English Football League, has set out to change that.
The Red Devils raised a few eyebrows when they revealed that they’d be scouting this year’s Sidemen game – which finished 8-7 in favor of the hosts – for players to potentially join the team for their FA Cup campaign.
TBJZL & Manny invited to train with Crawley Town after Sidemen match
Well now, a few weeks after the game, the club have confirmed that they’ll be inviting three players to train with them ahead of the game – the Brown brothers.
The trio includes Tobi, who is otherwise known as TBJZL and is a founding member of The Sidemen, Manny, a FIFA YouTuber, and their brother Jed.
Manny and Tobi linked up in that game at Charlton Athletic’s The Valley stadium, combining for arguably the goal of the game when Tobi delivered an outside-of-the-boot cross for his brother to head home from.
Though, the move hasn’t exactly gone down well with fans. “Making league 2 sound like a joke,” said one. “Good marketing but embarrassing and feel sorry for the young upcoming pros who actually take it seriously,” replied another. “What a joke of a owner and club. Laughing stock of football,” added another.
Some outsiders agreed that is a good publicity move for the club, as the YouTubers will attract plenty of attention for them and may even create a handful of new fans.
The club themselves have said it’s “fairly unlikely” that the YouTubers would even make it off the bench but they want to “give them every opportunity” to show what they can do.
The Red Devils previously signed reality TV star Mark Wright, and he was subbed on during an FA Cup win over Leeds United back in early 2021, so who knows what could happen.
