Blackpool musician's hilarious festive football mash-up goes viral

Glen Kirkham, 33, who is behind the hugely popular Football Songs channel on YouTube, is finding fame with his 119 Footballers One Christmas Song video.

The former Hodgson pupil has seamlessly replaced the original lyrics with the names of famous footballers to create an internet sensation with re-tweets all over the world.

And Glen, a disgruntled Blackpool FC fan, who studied music technology at the London College of Music and Media and who is a performing musician, has found his talents in demand with firms looking to advertise to the 18 to 25 male market.

He has also been called on by the likes of Sky Sports, EA Sports, the Premier League, the Bundesliga and the Champions League.

Glen said: “I think we have had 1.5 million views in six weeks since I started the Football Songs channel.

“The inspiration comes from the ongoing soap opera that is football today.

“It is observational humour. It is similar to writing a song.

“I lived in Switzerland for a few years where I did quite well with Dreamstate (indy rock) and with song writing experience you can pick up a key phrase or hook.

“It’s a bit like rapping, breaking things down phonetically and fitting them together.”

His version of James’ classic Sit Down using Mo Salah’s name has been used at the Champions’ League final.

His take on Shaggy’s It Wasn’t Me, riffing on Lionel Messi’s Spanish tax problems, changing Clean Bandit’s Rockabye to When Pogba Cries, and parodying Neymar’s ability to fall and roll in When Neymar Gets Shoved using Came Here for Love by Sigala are typical of his work which is netting him a healthy income despite some copyright run-ins.

Some band's publishers demand the video's are taken down, some demand all the royalties, while some split them with Glen.

“They say it take 10 years to become an overnight success and I suppose this is the culmination of me doing lots of different things.

“Some people think it is easy to be a YouTube star, but you have to work hard.

“Video editor James Williams and I put something out every four days on Football Songs. During the World Cup I thought I was going to burn out.

"But it was massive for us and we got our YouTube silver award for 100,000 subscribers at that time.”