A man moved to Liverpool to attend university, but dropped out after a day to pursue a career in content creating.
Santiago Vazquez, better known as Futcrunch online, is now one of the most successful FIFA and football creators in the world, with over 1.1 million TikTok followers and an average of 1 million views per YouTube video.
Originally from Venezuela, Santiago moved to Liverpool six years ago, hoping to go to university and find "better opportunities" in the UK. Enrolling as a mechanical engineering student, at the time he had no intention of becoming a social media sensation.
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After one day of university, he knew it was not for him and decided to quit, Santiago told the ECHO: "I thought being an engineer was the route, the place to go and would make my parents proud of me, and I didn’t enjoy it at all.
"I need to find a new job, but realistically if you asked me if I had a plan when I quit university, I didn’t have any plan."
He worked as a waiter at a local restaurant to get by, but he knew this was not going to make him happy long-term.
In an attempt to find a career that was right for him, he paid for a course about how to grow an Instagram following. Unfortunately, he felt like he had not learnt much from the course, but decided to put it to good use in the best way he could. He said: "I needed to find something I loved, and back then FIFA was the thing I loved."
Using his FIFA Instagram, he started his online career being paid for advertisements. Receiving around £50 per ad, he saved any money he earned and continued to live off his bar wages and tips. After a month he had over a thousand followers, and within a year he had a large following of 100,000 people.
Although the advertisements did not make him much, he persevered, he said: "‘I had a purpose, I really thought I could make it. It was in the back of my head, ‘you could make it’."
When lockdown hit, he decided to change his tactics as TikTok began to take off. Surprised with how quickly he became a success as one of the first FIFA creators on the app, he said: “I had been working on Instagram for a year and wasn’t seeing views like that - it was crazy.”
After a period of time, he began receiving requests on his videos to stream himself playing FIFA live, Santiago said: "I’d never seen that before, we never saw anyone stream as a part of my childhood. With the money I was saving up for years I was able to buy a complete set up and a PC."
Within two months, the donations he recieved from streaming allowed him to quit his job and follow his passion full-time.
The futcrunch name grew and became widely known as he was posting on TikTok and Instagram six times a day, creating streams and working 12 hours a day. To have a better work-life balance, he decided to focus on YouTube.
Whilst YouTube now allows him more time and creative freedom, Santiago's favourite part of the job is being able to engage with his fans. He said: "I lost friends because I worked so much, but I loved it. I think what I love most is how somebody can be in a bad mood, I can make people laugh.
"Resonating with people more and more is what fulfils me on a daily basis."
Looking to the future, Santiago wants to continue to grow his social media presence and share the joy of football with the world, showing how football brings different communities together.
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