What Is This Baller League Nonsense About?

Simply put, it's where non league journeyman can become household names. But is it capturing the charisma of anyone aged 12 and over?

“Baller League is on Sky Sports” I told my 40 something mates in a WhatsApp group chat of ex-football colleagues. “Joleon Lescott plays tonight” but is anyone watching? “Nobody cares” was one reply I received.

I thought I would add that “Mya Jama & Alisha Lehmann” are managing, for some short sighted sex appeal… Before getting back to tried and tested, “Luis Figo has a team” as does “Micah Richards, Alan Shearer, Gary Lineker, John Terry, Ian Wright” that only seemed to put them off further.

I dare not tell them that the league’s president is YouTuber KSI and that other social ‘influencers’ like Angry Ginge and Chunks were involved, instead opting to embrace it for what it brings to those participating… Players that have fallen wayside from the pro game are playing, as are non leaguers, players in steps 2, 3, 4 & 5 of the football pyramid, each picking up £400 a week for their troubles, whilst moonlighting Saturday/Tuesday for some of the nations oldest and most forgotten institutions that prop up grassroots.

Baller League has been set up to revolutionise the small sided game of five and six a side.

A success in Germany, it lays similar to the Kings League, created by Gerard Pique which has been a huge hit in Spain, indoor football with a twist, it is traditional format six-a-side football for 12 minutes per half, then the final three minutes of each has a game changer, which can be anything from 1v1 to goals from outside the box count double, all fouls equals red cards or three v three, where for every goal you get to add a player back, it dramatically changes the score line and boosts injection to otherwise dull matches which maybe one sided or too tight to call.

It shouldn’t work, because it’s a gimmick, and it ruins the flow of naturally, the best side having the best chance of winning, but the kids love it, I love it, but I seem to be the only person aged 16 or over that does.

One comment I laughed at was on X, “Anyone over the age of 14 that’s watching this needs their hard drive checking”.

Others posted on the Sky Sport Football bio after the nations number one sports channel marketed the event heavily during match week two “I hate this sport” and “who actually enjoys this crap” with many stating that if Sky keeps posting about #BallerLeague that they may have to “unfollow” their account.

Matt Le Tissier had his two pence worth re the squealing giggling KSI on co-comms “The commentary on the Baller League is putting me off watching it” he said, as Jeff Stelling replied “The Baller League is putting me off watching it”.

So why are so many, especially ‘older’ people not liking the event? After all it’s football and fills a void on a Monday night that otherwise offers nothing more than a meaningless match at best between two mid table teams, or Eastenders followed by University Challenge. One friend of mine did take time out to reply, by stating “I’m a purest Coach” a nickname he gave me during my time working in non league.

Purists love the masters, the old boys that played for the shirt of the club you support, that turned up in the summer months of the early Millennium indoors at arenas across the country kicking lumps out of each other, even though they were aged fifty and over, the professionalism in them wouldn’t let them lose their will to win.

The Masters was brilliant, it allowed house hold names that have retired from the game their moment to shine again, and if they stuck with it, there probably wouldn’t have been any need for Baller League at all.

I reminisce back even further, to the mid 1980’s when indoor football was played at the G-Mex Centre in Manchester, the Guinness Soccer Sixes, names like Keith Houchen and Terry Wilson, Imre Varadi and Paul Stewart, football league clubs during season, taking time out to play on carpet that burns your knees should you even dare to slide tackle.

The game has of course changed since then, these superstars will no more dance around in any capacity that might lead to a multi million insurance claim, so we get to choose non-leaguers, YouTubers, and a few retired footballers that can still run around a bit.

Why I like Baller League is because I know some of these players involved, I enjoy watching non league football and I enjoy these players putting themselves in the shop window, on national TV, on Sky Sports, on Twitch, on YouTube, on X, live, free for kids to watch, to show their skillset in front of millions, with an objective at the end of it, to have fun, to earn a few quid, to gain a bit of fame, but perhaps kick on their own football careers?

Take Tyler Winters, a nineteen year old forward on loan from Wellingborough at Peterborough Sports, on Saturday I watched him come off the bench to play two minutes in a 3-0 defeat at Kidderminster Harriers, on Monday he’s playing, and scoring in Baller League for Yanited, who currently top the table.

Other players like Jean Belehouan of Gateshead, David Solademi of Alfreton Town, Renell McKenzie-Lyle of Oxford City, early twenty’s, still with dreams of climbing up the ladder as serious football players, these are on show alongside famous faces from Hashtag United like PK Humble and Love Island’s Montell McKenzie, managed by well-known superstars of the game like Freddie Ljungberg and Robert Pires, it’s fun but it’s competitive and there is an end goal make money, win football matches, and perhaps progress their own careers through exposure they wouldn’t usually get in front of 2-300 fans.

There’s also pro footballers coming out of the game who this works great for too, one last hoorah, for Henri Lansbury, Joleon Lescott, Marvin Sordell, whilst some who have fallen down the pecking order from promising career starts, can re-ignite their love for the game, Charlie Wakefield twice won the UEFA Youth League with Chelsea, Josh Harrop scored a Premier League goal on his debut for Manchester United, they would love to put their careers on track, this may help them?

And finally, almost, there’s the non league journeyman who will also benefit from the Baller League, the players that have done it for years, regularly, if you know them, you know, they are the ones who’ve waited all their moments in time for a crack at the whip, to expose themselves to the masses, take the pornstar moustache wearing Dominic Vose, 31-years-old on his 22nd club Carshalton Athletic in a fifteen year career which started at West Ham. He’s ripping it up in the small sided arena with the likes of Bruno Andrade, a similar age who’s played for a mere sixteen different sides.

These players might have missed the boat, but youngsters coming through, players I’ve not known about previously, are now catching my eye. Bryan Ly at Bury looks a bloody good player, he’s 21 and has 17 goals at North West Counties level this season. Could this be the start of something special for him?

Whilst leggy 21-year-old Francis Mampolo of Dover Athletic, looks also to have some real technical talent. I’m a big fan of Rafael Garcia who doesn’t even have a club, he’s 22 and following youth careers with Fulham and Everton, most recently played for Jyvaskyla in Finland, too good not to be playing in the English pyramid, so at the very least, Baller League really is a shop window for some seriously talented footballers and whilst being fun in the mean time (for some at least), that to me, can only be a benefit to the wider game.

theHEADscout.

I’m a sports DATA Analyst and PFSA associate scout with level two qualifications in talent identification and level one certificates in technical scouting & opposition analysis.