Miguel Layún believes that football is losing appeal among fans

The world cup Miguel Layunthe only Mexican to play in the three main leagues in Europe, assured this Saturday that Football is slowly losing its ability to entertain people.

“For me, football is spectacle, it doesn’t have much science. “Football was born to entertain people and I believe that with the passage of time it has moved away from that objective,” the president of the Kings League América, a 7-a-side soccer tournament that has become famous for its nature, explained to EFE. digital, innovative rules that contribute to a dynamic game and attract mainly a youth audience.

The former Sevilla player, retired from professionalism since last December, It was chosen by former soccer player Gerard Piqué, owner, president and co-creator of the competition in Spain along with the streamer Ibai Llanos.to preside over the Latin American edition of the Kings League, which will begin next February in Mexico City.

Layún took on the challenge a few days after his retirement from professional football. The full-back, who represented Mexico in the Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018 World Cupsacknowledged that before being named head of the contest, his intention was to be one of the presidents of one of the 12 teams since the project always seduced him.

“The league is linked to the sport that I love the most, football, and with something that I like very much, entertainment, through the world of streaming. Besides, I have always been a faithful believer that it was time for disruptive and different ways to transmit traditional sports.”, he pointed.

Before his retirement, the former Villarreal player started businesses as a coffee brand, an esports team and started streaming on the Twitch platformin which he talks about different topics directly with his community of followers.

Esports and Twitch are linked to the digital ecosystem of the Kings League Americas, in which the majority of presidents are content creators who dedicate themselves to playing video games and chatting live in front of millions of followers.

“This is not a product that competes with traditional football because they have different audiences. This is a product by and for people, for those looking for something new, young people who want dynamic things and not watch 90 minutes of a game. For us, entertainment and closeness with the fans are key, something that is increasingly difficult in traditional football,” added Layún, 35 years old.

The former English Watford player assured that the main task that Piqué asked of him was Let him be himself and not try to copy what he did in the Spanish edition.

“A Kings League America was needed because the Latin American market is large and we were the second audience in the Spanish market. Our goal is to exceed the 480,000 spectators per day of the Spanish show, reaching more than 600,000”.

Among the presidents of the teams, in addition to content creators from countries other than the region, there are footballers like the Colombian James Rodríguez, at Atlético Parceros, and the Mexican Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernández, at Olimpo United.

Until last October, when the project was presented in Mexico City, among all the presidents of the cadres, there was a community of 451.5 million followersaccording to data from El Míster, a content platform that carries out sports business research.

“We are showing that there are people eager for new things in traditional sports. I see this product as having the capacity to be the desire of many young people in five years who see it as an option for play at the professional football level or get involved in the system as presidents or broadcasters and as a project that came to set a precedent and set a new trend in sports,” stated Layún.

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