How Footballco grew Goal’s Front Three from zero to 1.2m followers in three years

High profile guests aren’t the magic solution to success for digital content, believes Footballco VP of content Xavi Sanchez. 

Sanchez was speaking on the latest episode of the Broadcast Sport Podcast, where he detailed how the company grew football content creator brand Goal’s Front Three from zero followers to over 1.2 million in a little more than three years, with quiz and game show themed content. You can listen to the full episode, which also includes tips on how to approach content creator production, below, and subscribe to the Broadcast Sport Podcast on all major podcast platforms. 

Sanchez said that, “People think that if you put a famous person on your show, it will go to the moon. I usually say that famous talent is not an addition, it’s a multiplier. If your format is worth zero, but you multiply it by 100, which is the value of that talent, it’s still going to be zero. But if you have something that has a strong solid base, then multiplying it by adding the talent is what takes it to the next level.

“Front Three started working well because of the formats, because of the different things that we were doing and playing at. It got bigger thanks to the personality of our guys and the way that they were delivering, engaging and being very real and connecting to the fan base. Then it’s the moment of us being able to add a player or a guest and take it to the next level.”

Early guests included Antonio Rudiger, Jeremie Frimpong and Mikel Arteta, but the moment to bring them in only came after Footballco had experimented with a number of different formats. 

Sanchez revealed, “I joined the business in April 2022…and we had to very quickly activate and make sure that we’d be ready for [the 2022 World Cup]. We decided to turn that into our first ever vertical video competition. We did pretty well and that helped us test a lot of different things, and one of the things that we started seeing is that content on short form would be the way to go forward. More or less at the same time, we started with the idea that we needed to have a football talk show for Gen Z, and testing that with Front Three.

“It was initially just a talk show, and, to be fair, it wasn’t working great early on. We committed to do that for several months. We started February, March of 2023, and we said, ‘let’s give it until the end of the season to see where we’re going.’ But, in parallel, we were testing with the Front Three guys. We were testing several things on short form, on TikTok specifically, that we saw that were catching fire. So once we finished the season and we had more flexibility to play around, that’s when we evolved it into what you see right now.”

The impressive growth of the Front Three has come despite the hosts’ relative lack of following before its launch, unlike competitors such as The Sidemen. Sanchez said, “Front Three started with a slightly different approach. It was all full time employees at Footballco that had different skill sets, and we managed to identify and give them an outlet to create and evolve to grow into what they are now. Some of them had small minor audiences. Some of them were coming completely new without an Instagram page or a YouTube channel.

“Now they’re getting recognised in the streets. They’re getting invited to charity matches to participate in events as influencers on their own. It’s that versatility of not just being able to be on-screen talent, but being able to do a lot of different things within the company that is creating properly well-rounded personalities. We’ve also been helping them to grow and start their own channels. I’ve been telling them that I want them to grow as much as they can as individuals and that they will do so while also being part of Front Three.” 

You can hear more about Front Three’s growth, including it’s move into live watchalongs, how the type of guests they approach has changed, their plans for the World Cup, and more, in the podcast below. You can also listen to all other episodes of the Broadcast Sport Podcast by subscribing on any major podcast platform.