I quit my job to play football manager full time and sit in my room all day – now I’m doubling my old salary
A YOUTUBER who left his old job to become a football manager says he has doubled his salary since the move.
Tom Kelsey, 26, from Lincoln, quit his old job as a business support assistant at Lincolnshire County Council to play the simulation video game full-time.
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The player had started a YouTube channel dedicated to the popular game while studying at Nottingham Trent University.
Today he runs the business from his bedroom in his parents’ house.
“It’s the freedom it gives me, that’s what I love,” Tom said the BBC.
Football Manager allows players to take charge of their favorite football team and lead them to glory.
Since its release, the gaming community has grown rapidly. Last year the game was played by six million people.
“As [the channel] “As advertising becomes more popular and more people start watching it, you start making money from the ads you see,” he said.
“Suddenly the idea arose that I could do this as a career one day.”
“The money I make now is twice what I made at my full-time job before doing YouTube.”
“For me, the best thing about being able to earn this money while being my own boss, making my own decisions and not working for someone else.”
The former council worker earned around £25,000 for his previous position, meaning he can rake in a significantly more £50,000 a year from his new passion project.
The clever YouTuber’s channel has almost 120,000 subscribers and receives around one million views per month.
“I can easily spend 50 to 60 hours a week playing Football Manager, which might sound like it would drive some people crazy, but for me it’s a dream,” he continued.
“It’s a very unusual career path to say that my job involves playing video games.”
“It’s growing year to year, month to month, so I’m going to try to do this for as long as possible.”
Elsewhere, a woman who was bullied for her love of gaming has now turned her passion into a full-time job, earning a staggering £7,000 a month.
Natalie Barnes, from Greater Manchester, started her career playing video games for hours from the comfort of her bedroom in Wigan.
The 20-year-old dropped out of her law degree at Liverpool University after earning thousands every year.
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