Anyone even remotely online has more than likely come across IShowSpeed, the 19-year-old content creator famous for his dramatic reactions and live streams. Over the past few years, the ubiquitous social media star has taken a full dive into the world of soccer, and can be seen at nearly ever major event. However, his fandom has been perceived as both a blessing and a curse by the soccer industry.
Darren Jason Watkins Jr. is IShowSpeed, an exuberant, over-the-top, and at times cringe-worthy content creator, who has a grand total of 54 million followers across Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter alone.
At one time, Speed was a video game enthusiast, and rose to popularity through his eccentric behavior while live streaming. In 2022, prior to the FIFA World Cup, he began to create content related to soccer. His biggest claim to fame in the soccer world was his over-the-top devotion to Cristiano Ronaldo, of whom he is a die-hard fan.
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Speed’s most recent Instagram posts feature him jumping over various exotic cars while wearing Ronaldo kits — one Portugal and one Manchester United. The stunts have garnered over 200 million views and nearly 20 million likes. A quick scroll through his social media feeds reveals highlights from celebrity charity soccer matches, pics with legends of the game like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Neymar, and yes, Ronaldo himself, along with on-pitch photos at Old Trafford.
If Speed is an expert at anything, it’s calling attention to himself. So the question is, why? Why are soccer clubs, federations, and confederations interested in the antics of a 19-year-old from Ohio, some of which have gotten him banned from platforms like Twitch?
“The popularity of this influencer is due to a combination of factors, the first of which is his charisma,” said Agustin Aguiar, executive producer at Sports Summit, a Latin America-based sports business conference. “Then there’s the connection he made with Cristiano Ronaldo, which has made him a guiding light for many of Cristiano’s fans, leading them to follow his journey. What’s interesting about figures like Speed is not their direct link to the sport itself, but how they indirectly connect audiences to the sport.”
A prime example of this is NBC’s collaboration with Snoop Dogg, a hip-hop icon turned side quest master. A long-time sports nut, Snoop has has done booth work for boxing matches, MLB, and NHL games. His love of American football and his constant wearing of soccer kits have shown another side of the rapper and, in a strange way, brought his audience to sports they would not normally watch.
Snoop, like Speed, has his own style and charisma, and in the case of NBC, they are reporting huge rating hikes on the air and increased engagement on social media. Most notably, Snoop was in the booth yelling “GOOOOLLLL” with famed Telemundo commentator Andres Cantor. The rapper has even crossed language barriers.
As reported by the BBC, Molly Solomon, executive producer of the NBC Olympics, described Snoop as a “happiness ambassador.”
Brands and Content, Content and Brands
With the arrival of social media, brands have been able to connect in more ways than one with audiences through brand ambassadors and influencers, especially in the sports landscape. When Argentina and Colombia played in the Copa America final, it seemed like every major celebrity with a connection to those countries was at the event — from singers like Maluma to Argentine model Pampita.
Being at these major sporting events has now become a status symbol, bringing the sport of soccer, in this case, to the forefront for people who might be more interested in pop music, modeling, cooking, or filmmaking. Brands and influencers are indirectly communicating with each other.
The biggest example of this was in the NFL, where one of the richest and most powerful sports leagues in the world made time on their television broadcasts to show that the biggest musician in the world, Taylor Swift, was at their games.
Swift’s presence cheering on the Kansas City Chiefs, where boyfriend Travis Kelce plays, had a major cultural impact. She was front and center cheering Kelce and the Chiefs during Super Bowl LVIII. Even the million-dollar commercials that take center stage during the biggest sporting event in the United States took a back seat as Swift got more free screen time than any brand would ever get. Her cheers and reactions were just as important as any play or ad from the night, and she even got a highlight reel compilation from the NFL.
With the 2026 FIFA World Cup on the horizon, it’s only certain that we’ll see several influencers cross-marketing with the world’s biggest sport. There have already been documented examples of how celebrities can make an event just with their appearance, and many brands, including FIFA, will be looking to recreate that success.
It’s where someone like Speed can come in and bring a sport that, according to Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, is “boring a younger audience,” to a demographic used to morsel-sized content based on reactionary emotions. Speed speaks to an audience that no know-it-all soccer analyst can ever relate to.
“Many people come to the sport by following Speed in his challenges or his activations,” Aguiar said. “This is also a two-way street — leagues, federations, and clubs also use content creators like Speed to genuinely reach those audiences that aren’t as loyal to the sport.”
For a purist, Speed may be a hindrance or an unnecessary annoyance. To a new generation of fans who have grown up playing FIFA, watching everyday people “react” to various elements of the pop culture zeitgeist, or to soccer fans who have turned away from established media to listen to alternative viewpoints, Speed is a feeling — one that might not necessarily add any insight or perspective, but entertains and engages nonetheless. He offers a front-row seat for the outsider and his nearly 50 million legion of followers.
As Speed told Dazed in an interview, “My whole life is on the internet.” In many ways, for those of us who use social media, so is ours — where we eat, who our children are, where we go. Speed has only taken that up exponentially, and, in the process, is one of many streamers and influencers who have gained access to the biggest events in sports.
It doesn’t matter if some brands, sports, and teams don’t mind cashing in on that popularity from time to time, even to the chagrin of the soccer purist.
