On Saturday, September 24th, at 4 pm EST, the Sidemen kicked off their fourth Sidemen F.C Charity Match with featured YouTube sensations such as MrBeast and TikTok sensations like Noah Beck.
The Sidemen are a YouTube group that originates from the United Kingdom. It is made up of seven members: Olajide "KSI" Olatunji, Simon "Miniminter" Minter, Josh "Zerkaa" Bradley, Tobi "TBJZL" Brown, Ethan "Behzinga" Payne, and Vik "Vikkstar123" Barn. The group came to fame in 2013 making videos together on Grand Theft Auto V. In January 2014, the group forged a strong bond at a FIFA event and later decided to move into a house together. Ever since, the group has been making content on anything from video games to soccer and mukbangs. As of now, the Sidemen YouTube channel has 16.8 million subscribers. However, between all of their individual channels, they have accumulated about 130.9 million subscribers.
In 2015, the Sidemen participated in a soccer charity match hosted by Spencer FC called The Wembley Cup. In 2016, the Sidemen decided to launch their own charity match that took place at Saint Mary’s Stadium, home of Southampton F.C. All the money from this match went to a charity named the Saints Foundation. The foundation helps Southampton give back to their dedicated fans. Around 15,000 attended the match and 600,000 watched by live stream. The Sidemen held the match annually until 2018.
They decided that 2018 would be the last game played and it was. After TikTok had blown up, the possibility of a fourth charity match had grown exponentially. With many new celebrities available to play, the match soon became a reality. Eventually, the date was set and The Sidemen only had to invite players to play. The match was set to be Team Sidemen vs YouTube All-Stars.
Team Sidemen featured all seven of them plus MrBeast and Karl Jacobs, well-known friends Chris MD, Callux and Calfreezy, Tobi’s brother Manny as well as other YouTubers like Pieface, JME and Lazarbeam.
The YouTube All-Stars featured Beta squad members, Niko Omilana, Yung Filly, Chunkz, Harry Pinero, MrBeast’s friends Chris and Chandler, TikTokers Noah Beck, and Cal the Dragon, as well as other YouTubers like IShowSpeed, Theo Baker, Castro, AnEsonGib, Danny Aarons, and GeorgeNotFound.
The lineups were as follows:
This match had such a renowned group of content creators participating that the hype could not have been built up more, and the match was very entertaining to say the least. The match was a dramatic 8-7 win for Team Sidemen racking up 26,000 attendees and 2.6 million viewers.
IShowSpeed, a famous YouTube streamer, got the YouTube All-Stars off to a strong start. After 50 seconds of play, Speed made a crunching slide tackle into KSI and proceeded to celebrate the foul. With his immense fanbase, Speed was energizing the crowd. After more play, Chunkz of the YouTube All-Stars, had a rocket from about 30 yards out into the top left corner. Niko Omilana followed it up with a cheeky chip over PieFace to give the All-Stars a 2-0 start.
After a slow start, the Sidemen came back to life with great build up play leading to an easy goal for Vik. Tobi and the Sidemen came right back down the pitch again with beautiful play, and Tobi smashed the ball into the top shelf making it 2-2. Yung Filly answered right back with an absolute screamer, under immense pressure, from about 20 yards out straight into the top right corner; there was nothing PieFace could do about it. Then Miniminter found himself in a crossing position but the ball got past goalkeeper Cal the Dragon. With many more goals and horrendous goalkeeping, the charity match ended 8-7 in a win for the Sidemen.
My personal favorite moment of the game was when IShowSpeed scored. However, the goal was sadly ruled offside. Speed, an American, has grown immensely due to Tiktok and his Youtube streams. Most recently, Speed adopted a passion for soccer and Crsitiano Ronaldo, his idol. After Speed scored, he ran to the corner flag and celebrated with a Crisitiano Ronaldo “SUI” and the crowd echoed him. It is one of the most emphatic moments in celebrity sports history.
In the end, the Sidemen raised over a million dollars for four UK charities including Campaign Against Living Miserably, Teenage Cancer Trust, Rays of Sunshine, and M7 Education.