'I was a FIFA esports champion in 2021 - now I'm leading my country to the real World Cup'

Tom Weber

• 28 Mar 2026 07:00 CDT
• 6 min read

News

Former global esports champion Oliver Provstgaard Nielsen made his senior debut for Denmark in their 4-0 win over North Macedonia on Thursday.

The 22-year-old has gone from winning titles on FIFA (or EAFC as it is now known) to potentially helping his country reach the World Cup within just a couple of years.

Born in Copenhagen, Nielsen was scouted and snapped up by five-time Danish champions Velje as a youngster, but his development would suffer a devastating setback when he tore his ACL in December 2020.

At the time, the then-teenager had not yet made his senior debut for Velje, but he had been named in a matchday squad for the first time just a few weeks earlier, so he was not far away from the first team.

However, his injury sidelined him for the best part of nine months, and he was forced to start from scratch again. It wasn't until March 2022 that he would make another senior squad, and his debut would eventually come the following month.

From FIFA player to Serie A star

During his recovery process, the young centre-back obviously had a lot of free time on his hands, and he put this time to good use by honing his skills on EA Sports' video game FIFA 21.

By May 2021, Nielsen, playing under the username OliverPN, had made the cut for that year's eChampions League as one of the top 32 performers in the qualifiers. Nielsen was one of four Danish players at the tournament.

After beating Dutch player Lev 4-3 in the first round, Nielsen faced Turkish player iMertAL, who had defeated him 5-4 and finished 20 spots higher in the qualifying stage.

This time, however, Nielsen would get the better of him, winning 6-5. After comfortably cruising past players from Spain, Italy and the UK across two legs in the ensuing three rounds, he faced the Italian Er_Caccia98, representing AC Monza, in the Grand Final.

Thanks to a 2-1 win in the first leg, a 1-1 draw in the return fixture was enough to see Nielsen triumph in the second edition of the eChampions League and to come away with the whopping $75,000 prize money.

Success would eventually follow on the pitch. Nielsen went on to make 91 senior appearances for Velje between 2022 and 2025, earning him a club-record €4.5 million move to Lazio in early 2025.

After rotating in and out of the lineup, Nielsen established himself as a starter in January. As a result, he was rewarded with his first call-up to the senior national team ahead of the current international break.

This break is hugely important for the Danes as they can still qualify for the upcoming World Cup via the UEFA playoffs. On Thursday, they cruised past North Macedonia 4-0 to set up a final clash with the Czech Republic in Prague.

In the 87th minute of the match with North Macedonia, Nielsen was handed his debut by head coach Brian Riemer, almost five years after his success in the eChampions League.

Because of his commitments on the pitch, the 22-year-old never again took part in an official esports competition after May 2021. "After winning, I got invited to another tournament, and if I placed in the top 10, I'd have qualified for the World Cup," he later recalled in an interview with SPORTbible.

"But I turned it down. I even tweeted that I wouldn’t participate and that I would let someone else take my spot. People thought I was crazy to step away, but football was my priority."

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