Antonio Radelja is the champion of the Virtual Bundesliga individual player competition!

Antonio ‘AntonioRadelja’ Radelja is the 2023 champion of the Virtual Bundesliga (VBL) individual player competition. In the final leg of the VBL Grand Final 2023, which wrapped up the eleventh season of the eSports competition, he beat FC St. Pauli’s Berkay ‘BerkayLion’ Demirci with an overall score of 4:2 (the first leg ended in a 1:1 draw, the second leg in a 3:1 success). All matches were played using EA SPORTS FIFA 23.

‘I’m so happy. I still can’t believe it. I don’t think I’ve ever played better than I did this weekend, but there were lots of unbelievably good players taking part. So I had to stay mentally strong, and the support of my team really helped as well,’ said Radelja after his victory on Sunday evening. The 21-year-old player representing Eintracht Frankfurt received the trophy in front of around 800 spectators at the Strassenkicker Base in Cologne. The win secured him prize money of €40,000. Radelja had qualified for the VBL Grand Final directly via the VBL Club Championship.

Jörg Höflich, Head of Virtual Bundesliga at DFL: ‘Congratulations on behalf of the DFL to Antonio Radelja on winning the 2023 title. The new German champion successfully qualified for the VBL Grand Final in a strongly competitive field and showed nerves of steel in the final encounters on the big stage too. Now that this season has drawn to a close, our thanks go to all the players, participating clubs and Virtual Bundesliga partners.’

The VBL Grand Final saw 32 players meet in an offline event, having already qualified via the VBL Club Championship and the VBL Open play-offs. The prize money pool totalled €100,000.