From air traffic control to recording with Gerard Pique - meet the County Down man making waves on YouTube

Many football fans will recognise the 29-year-old’s face from YouTube, where he has amassed over 270,000 subscribers and racked up “an obscene” half a billion views during the World Cup across his media channels, highlighting quirky stats, unique stories and interesting angles.

Then there’s TikTok – the newest kid on the block in the social media world – where his daily uploads have been ‘liked’ more than 26 million times.

It has been a meteoric rise for the County Down man, who only a matter of months ago was working for the Irish Aviation Authority in Cork before taking a leap into the relative unknown.

"It has been the maddest six months,” he told the News Letter.

"Coming back from the pandemic, I couldn't shake the feeling of maybe content should be what I'm doing and was questioning if I should go full time or not.

“I celebrated 10,000 YouTube subscribers on the 10th of September with my friends and I thought I was a hero and now we're on 260,000!

"I handed in my notice on the 24th of October when I had 30,000 subscribers and I was on edge.

"I had maybe 70,000 on TikTok but by the time I actually left on December 7th, I had already hit 100,000 on YouTube, 150,000 on TikTok and it really took the edge off things.

"I went from full-time air traffic controller to YouTuber in six months and 10,000 subscribers to half a billion views across platforms in the space of a few months. It couldn't have went better really."

Nellis had grew a base audience through his videos on Sorare, a global fantasy football game that offers players the chance to win cash prizes, cards and unique experiences.

Such is his standing in the community that when the French-founded company (which was last valued around $4.3 billion) announced a multi-million pound deal with the English Premier League in late-January, Nellis was picked to star in the launch video.

That has now been viewed over one million times on Twitter and having grown up in Newcastle, Northern Ireland, it was only fitting that when asked which top he wanted to wear, he opted for Newcastle United.

"It was incredible,” he said of the experience. “It blew me away from the start.

"They flew me over, I was brought to the hotel, picked up and brought to this massive warehouse and humungous operation. There were 80 extras, four or five actors and I was the influencer which was funny.

"I keep telling people it was like being on a movie set. It was mad with the directors barking orders, producers, extras going around creating this bar look and all the retakes, actions and cuts.

"At lunch time, all the extras had to queue up for their food but the actors had it delivered - I can see how actors become prima-donnas! Seeing the end product and the level of production was insane.”

Nellis has always had a desire to entertain and after taking the scenic route, feels he has ended up in a spot where he really belongs.

"When I look back, I think throughout my life I always did things that were creative or attention-seeking,” he reflects.

"I always had little side things going. I decided I wanted to be a DJ for a while and when all my mates went to university, I decided I wanted to work in a cocktail bar.

"I went to Camp America and came back wanting to be a magician. I was doing bars, weddings, clubs for 18 months between 18 and 19 and started a YouTube channel then too doing reactions but I hadn't a notion!

"I got into another type of job being an air traffic controller but this has crept back in.”

His love of Sorare and football more generally has brought Nellis around the world, travelling to New York to record an episode of his ‘So Far, SoRare” podcast with famous entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk and as we’re talking, he has just returned from Paris where he shot content with Barcelona legend, Pique – a Sorare investor.

Mixing with the good and great of world football is a million miles from the streets of Newcastle, but with every experience and moment, Nellis starts to feel more at home.

"Gerard Pique is the first A-list footballer that I've had access to so that was a real marquee moment,” he said.

"A big moment for me was in May when I flew to New York to talk to Gary Vee. He's a huge deal in the Web3 and entrepreneur space and his views and influence are massive.

"That for me was the first test. It's one thing making videos in your spare room, but another when you're out and about talking to these massive people, taking up their time and there was a real pressure to deliver.

"I'd 30 minutes so I couldn't waste it. I didn't know what I would feel like walking into that office and I felt I handled it well and it allowed me to feel like I could do this whole thing without getting shaky and losing my train of thought. That was a real moment.

"The big thing now is transitioning from the shouty football stats guy and trying to bring out my personality more.

"The travel is going to be insane over the next few months and we're going to make lots of really good content. We have access lined up to A-list athletes, so hopefully we can make something fun with it."