Premier League football team West Ham United have expanded their esports roster with the signing of Danny Taylor.
Danny is an experienced FIFA player, having played it for more than ten years and made it to FIFA Interactive World Cup (eWorld Cup) grand finals three times.
He focuses on PS4, while his teammate Jamie “Jamboo” Rigden – who joined the Hammers this time last year – plays FIFA on Xbox One.
Both players will be representing West Ham in the FIFA eClub World Cup qualifaction group stages over the coming months.
“I’m absolutely buzzing to be given an opportunity like this,” Danny told whufc.com. “I’m a long-term player, and have been playing online competitively since FIFA 08, but this is the first time I’ve stepped into the professional environment of actually representing a football club.
“I’ve always just represented myself, and made it to a few world finals, but this is the first time I’ve ever stepped up to this level. It’s massive for me and it’s something I’ve always wanted to do.”
“I’ve always just represented myself, and made it to a few world finals, but this is the first time I’ve ever stepped up to this level.”
Danny Taylor
West Ham were the first Premier League football team to embrace esports, signing Sean “Dragonn” Allen two years ago, who later moved to the Lightning Pandas.
Dragonn also coached fellow UK FIFA player Spencer “Gorilla” Ealing in last year’s FIFA Interactive World Cup, a tournament Gorilla went on to win.
Since West Ham moved into esports, many other football clubs followed suit, including the likes of PSG, Roma, Manchester City and many more.
Some remain in FIFA, while others have embraced different games like League of Legends and Rocket League.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
