Eighteen-year-old Melbourne student Alex Giannakis is hoping to be the new face of YouTube soccer channel Copa90 – the world’s biggest online football network, but she needs your vote to get her there.
The global YouTube phenomenon that is changing the face of young people’s engagement with the sport, set out to find six new presenters earlier this year, whittling thousands of wannabes across six continents to just 18.
Alex, who has just completed her year 12 exams at Caulfield High School, has one last hurdle to jump, with the winner of the Oceania region being decided by an online vote.
Speaking to Neos Kosmos, Alex, said she was thrilled to have made it so far in Copa90’s worldwide search.
“Finding out I’d made it this far brought me to tears I was so happy…I just hope I can make it all the way” said Alex.
“To win I need to rally as much support as I can, get people to vote on lots of devices, share the video, and with six weeks to go before voting closes, it would be great to get as many votes as possible.”
Set on a career in football journalism, Alex, who works in her family’s Port Melbourne restaurant, plans to study journalism at RMIT next year.
An Arsenal, Melbourne City, and South Melbourne fanatic, she says her family’s support has played a big part in her confidence as a presenter.
“Mum and dad are extremely proud and have been very supportive of me the whole time, the whole family has, and I feel so lucky to have them all around me.”
If chosen, Alex will front Copa90’s programs covering the A-League and Socceroos but also grass-roots soccer across Australia.
With over one million subscribers since its launch in 2012, Copa90 averages 3.6 million views a month. Last month the channel announced it had secured $14.8 million in funding and with sponsorship deals with Nissan, HTC and Adidas, the UK-based channel is valued at over $100 million.
Key to Copa90’s attraction is a youthful edge and a style of soccer journalism beyond traditional broadcasters.
“We started with a very simple principle that we wanted to create a channel that was going to catch the story outside the 90 minutes, to make the 90 minutes matter more,” said Copa90’s corporate owner, chief executive, Tom Thirlwall.
“We’re all about reconnecting fans, because there is a wide sense of disenfranchisement around the world between fans and the industry of football, and that over productised, broadcast football… We have managed to tell some of the stories that simply traditional media haven’t covered or didn’t want to cover.”
With ambitions to overtake linear broadcasting, one of its current Australian presenters, Eli Mengem (who also won his place through an online competition) says it’s all about being authentic. “Fans trust us… [there is] an authenticity you can’t get from mainstream media”.
You can help Alex realise her dream by checking out her promo video, and voting for her, at: http://copa90.com/vote-for-your-copa90search-oceania-presenter
Voting closes on December 30 and the winner will be announced on January 11.