It is a game for the football geeks, the data-lovers, the algorithm-obsessed. But the current leader of the Fantasy Premier League (FPL), which allows participants to play at being Premier League managers during the football season, is not a data analyst, a football insider or a computer scientist, but a 67-year-old woman who uses a pen and paper to choose her team each week.
Susan Clarke, otherwise known as the Ruby Reds, achieved near-mythical status among committed FPL players this week as she beat millions of competitors to be top of the online Premier League game, despite admitting to a lo-fi approach.
The FPL, which gives players a budget to form their own teams of Premier League footballers and gain points on the back of their real-world weekly performances, attracts more than 11 million players around the world. From hobbyists who choose their teams like they would a Grand National runner to enthusiasts who spend unhealthy amounts of time analysing player data, everyone is in awe of Clarke’s status this week, says Mitch Murphy, the co-founder of the Lazy FPL newsletter.
“It’s not just that she’s the top of 11.4 million people, it’s that she’s top out of 11.4 million people after 29 game weeks, it’s astonishing,” Murphy said. “It’s like winning the EuroMillions.”
Lazy FPL spotted Clarke’s prowess this week, and contacted her via a newsletter subscriber. When asked how she felt about being FPL’s top dog in week 29, Clarke, who has resisted the siren call of other media outlets, said she was “shocked but enjoying the reaction of my family and friends”.
The 67-year-old, who competes in a five-person mini-league called Game of Bones, is nearly 200 points ahead of the second-placed team in her league, with a whopping 2,186 points. Asked for her magic formula when picking her team, she told Lazy FPL: “At the ripe old age of 67 (you can call me old fashioned!) my weekly lists with pen and paper seem to be the secret to my success!”
That success has delighted other players because it goes against the increasing automation and use of artificial intelligence to help choose the best players, says Murphy. “The game is becoming more data driven, more AI-powered, more automated, more head than heart,” he said. “And then there’s Susan, who has got a pen and paper and everything she touches turns to gold.”
The FPL has grown exponentially since it launched with about 70,000 players in August 2002. A decade later that figure had grown to 2.6 million in the UK – and now there are 11.4 million players worldwide, with the largest number of managers in England, Egypt, Nigeria, Malaysia and the US. Andy Murray can often be found on social media moaning about the site crashing under the weight of transfers on a Saturday morning, the rapper Stormzy is known to listen to an FPL podcast by a sports psychologist to help choose his team, while the chess champion Magnus Carlsen managed to become a top-ranking FPL manager in his spare time.
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Given the competition it is, says Murphy, quite unlikely that Clarke will win the fantasy league this season. But he’s rooting for her. “On average, the people who rank highly in FPL are the ones spending an embarrassing amount of time analysing the data,” he said.
“But what we really love is when someone like Susan comes along and demonstrates the randomness of football. No one wants to watch or play a game where the results are predetermined. Everyone wants to see Susan top of the league at game week 30.”