In normal footballing life you would say training start, in the virtual world it is: Release Date. Fifa 22 is here, the playground for e-athletes, and now it’s a matter of adapting to the new conditions as quickly as possible: Sometimes the game on the console is a bit more defensive, like Fifa 20. Fabio Sabbagh was quite good , maybe not a coincidence, in real life he’s also a defender. Every year the players have to practice in countless test games until their finger joints hurt. “During the release, I train six to eight hours a day. That subsides over time when you have a certain rhythm.”
But over the entire year, the e-soccer player called “Fifabio” trains more than the soccer player Fabio. That is not at all surprising, after all, Fifabio (in the social media “Fifabio97”) also plays three leagues higher than Fabio. The 23-year-old sits at the console for Werder Bremen and lace up his shoes for SV Heimstetten in the Regionalliga Bayern. This makes him the top-class real footballer in the first virtual Bundesliga. And thus an interesting person to identify possible interfaces and differences between the two worlds.
Fabio Sabbagh currently has a problem that Fifabio does not know: a rupture of the syndesmosis ligament. He has played half an hour so far in the current season, then he was replaced in the Grünwalder Stadium at Bayern II injured. But that’s why he doesn’t have any more time to prepare for the virtual season. “You might think so, but the truth is that injuries also affect esports training. Doctor’s appointments and physio take more time than soccer training,” he says. At least on the weekends, he is currently more flexible. He’s already attending PR appointments for Werder Bremen before the start of the season in November and travels a lot.
In general, it is striking how many things are similar, although the esports scene initially developed largely detached from the world of sports. Two years ago, Sabbagh was still playing for SpVgg Greuther Fürth in the second division, and so well that he was poached. “It’s almost the same as in real football. I played well in the debut season, then some clubs contacted me, and then I moved to Bremen in the summer,” he says. A year later, last July, his contract was extended. His statement in the press release at the time could also come from one of Werder’s current football additions: “The club, the fans and the professional environment are really special. I felt very comfortable here from the start and am motivated in the new season to give everything to be successful again with the team. “
On his channel, Sabbagh has more than 44,000 followers who watch the games
The Bremen e-athletes now also have a coach who is himself in his late twenties – he has actually ended his active career, although you can also earn a lot of money in the E-Bundesliga. But: “At that age there is a point where you realize: I can no longer keep up as a player,” says Sabbagh.
The team is now also working with a sports psychologist. Above all, Sabbagh sees added value for his game on the real turf: “You can transfer a little football know-how. But above all the mental strength that I develop in e-sports, the concentration training, the mentality. ” His coach at SV Heimstetten is “completely out” of the matter, he watched once, says Christoph Schmitt, “that’s just not my world”. But it takes a lot of hard work to do both, because Sabbagh is under contract with two clubs, but he is “an absolute professional” in this respect too. If he ever misses a training session, he will make up for it or at least “do his runs”.
There is one more player who also operates both at a high level: Sascha Mockenhaupt plays for Wehen Wiesbaden in league three and was most recently virtually active in league two for the same club. In his case, more people seem to know him in the real world than in the gamer scene, with Fabio Sabbagh it’s the other way around. Viewers? “More than in Heimstetten, definitely. It’s a big community.” His Twitch channel – the easiest way to watch him play – currently has more than 44,000 followers. When virtual Bundesliga games are on television, most recently on ProSieben Maxx, the number of viewers is in five digits.
The e-sports Bundesliga is by no means as big as the e-sports events of League of Legends or Fortnight, whose world championships are actually held in real, large stadiums and whose winners collect several million dollars in prize money. But the soccer players among the gamers are also real professionals. And emancipated enough to be able to break away from the original. However, most of them do not seem to mind that the sports associations jumped up late, that is, riding the wave rather than shaping it themselves. “I think it’s cool when associations stand up for us, it never hurts. But it doesn’t have a huge impact on me now,” says Sabbagh. Classic association PR cannot keep up with the target group-oriented self-marketing of the players.
The soccer field came first at Sabbagh, years before the console. He says Werder Bremen knows: The passion for football will never be lost. But it is the hobby, e-sports the profession with which the student teacher for sports and math currently earns his money. Both have so much to do with each other, the two worlds have a lot in common, and yet they are completely separate from each other.
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