English Premier League football club Manchester City have moved into Fortnite esports for the first time.
They’ve signed 16-year-old player from Pennsylvania, Aidan ‘Threats’ Mong, who has taken part in a lot of cash cups in North America this year.
According to an announcement post on the Man City website, Threats began playing Fortnite in October 2017 and fully committed to training in December 2020.
He’s been handed a one-year contract with the current Premier League champions.
Threats will make his Man City debut in the Fortnite DreamHack Open, which gets underway this week from October 7th to 10th 2021. He will also play in the Fortnite Champion Series (FNCS) later this month.
Threats said: “Being selected as the first ever Fortnite player to sign for Manchester City means everything to me.
“Like most Fortnite players, I dreamed of joining a team, but I never could have imagined being part of an organisation like City. “I am ready to represent Man City Esports and continue their winning tradition in the competitive Fortnite scene. Let’s go!”
“Being selected as the first ever Fortnite player to sign for Manchester City means everything to me. Like most Fortnite players, I dreamed of joining a team, but I never could have imagined being part of an organisation like City.”
Threats
Man City already compete in FIFA esports, with British players Ryan Pessoa and Shaun ‘Shellzz’ Springette representing the club on the FIFA stage.
Earlier this year, Shellzz won the 2020/21 ePremier League on penalties for Manchester City.
In other FIFA UK esports news, UK org Excel Esports recently completed the biggest FIFA esports transfer signing in history. UK player Tom Leese joined the org from Hashtag United as Excel announced a new FIFA jersey and EE partnership, and Excel also resigned fellow UK player Gorilla.
Two years ago, Man City announced a partnership with FaZe Clan.
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.
