Though the new English Football League season does not kick off for almost three weeks with a Friday-night Championship double-header, its fantasy league launches on Monday. Cue punny team names – One Size Fitz Hall, and Ctrl, Alt, De Laet spring to mind – lesser-spotted formations and shrewd, strategic managerial selections. For the first time, Championship, League One and League Two players will get their moment in the sun in a bottomless virtual world as Fantasy EFL embarks on a debut campaign ready to capture the hearts of supporters.
Adebayo Akinfenwa, an EFL icon who surely would have been a popular pick in his heyday, says the Birmingham City goalkeeper and former Wycombe teammate Ryan Allsop, the Leeds winger Crysencio Summerville and Wrexham striker Paul Mullin will be his first picks. “Every year I get put into a WhatsApp group to play in a fantasy league,” says Akinfenwa, revealing an unsurprising team name: Beast Mode. “I think my 14-year-old son and my nephew came first and second in our one last year. They’re methodical when it comes to stats.”
