‘It’s changed football for me’ – Life as a Fantasy Football contender

It is a major drag on the lives of many football fans.

Fans from across the nation are eager to see random players play in a bid to win over their pals in the game of fantasy football, which has never been so popular.

Imagine if Fantasy Premier League (FPL) players placed 66th out of 11 million, only 51 points clear of the leaderboard.

Nathan Bannister, a Nottingham Forest fan who works as an apprentice at BBC Sport, is a reality for the 19-year-old.

Nathan Bannister spoke with Ciaran Varley of BBC Sport.

I’m frequently introduced as the FPL guy when I meet new people now. This is by far the best season I’ve played the game to date, after five years. I had a final score of about 13, 000th in the previous season, which is still very impressive but nothing noteworthy.

When you do so well, it becomes a real part of your life and encourages me to do more research.

On Fridays, I would scroll through X a little more and then transfer my files. I wouldn’t be thinking about the game all week. I think a lot about FPL this season, and it has a big impact on my mood.

Knowing that if I abruptly leave, I’ll lose some of what makes me special is strange.

I play as many games as I can over the weekend. Instead of just checking how many points they’ve earned once they’ve been involved, I want to see how one of my players fared.

I’ll go over my decision-making process from the weekend before going over it for the first few days of the week.

Then, I’ll examine the content creators of FPL on Wednesday and Thursday.

I’ll check the injuries at each club’s press conference on Friday. I want to know, even if the player isn’t on my team.

I transfer on a Saturday at 10:30, which means I have all of my information up to date.

Because it’s very common to have tunnel vision, I spend hours talking to friends and family throughout the entire process. We spend hours chatting about teams and talking about them because my brother is a huge FPL fan as well.

Five gameweeks in the future, I consider who to buy and who to get rid of. Due to gameweeks when teams play twice and gameweeks when teams don’t play at all, it’s important to be aware of when fixtures are set.

In two weeks, I intend to play my wildcard game, which allows players to make infinite transfers. I’ll compile numerous drafts of various teams and compare them side by side during wildcard weeks. I might use about 10 draft teams already.

I also have a lot of faith in my gut because I try to keep in mind that this is a game that’s meant to be entertaining.

Since joining Nottingham Forest almost the entire season, I’ve had goalkeeper Matz Sels, defensive partner Ola Aina, and striker Chris Wood on the team.

You a bit of a builder with your team’s players. Now, I can trust Wood and Aina.

I was told by so many friends that starting Aina against Arsenal didn’t appeal to me. The clean sheet was given to him.

Many people buy into the team-related media narrative. I have always believed that Forest would be fantastic this year, despite the fact that the narrative surrounding them has always been that we have bought too many players, our squad has been dismantled, and our signings have been scatter-gun.

The most ridiculous season I can think of is Forest finishing third in the Premier League and 66th in the FPL.

This year, I also had a lot of other events occur in my life, including moving from London to Manchester and getting this job. How much has FPL made a difference in my life? You can’t tell until you know it is football.

Football has slightly changed this season for me. I now follow a game as an FPL fan first, and a football fan second. Although it’s enjoyable, there’s a certain amount of relief I’ll experience once the season is over.

Then, I’ll consider what contributed to my success this season. I’ll probably go over every decision I made throughout the entire season.

By the time the new season arrives, I’ll be missing football because there won’t be any international competitions this summer.