Former Arsenal and Man City player listed as sub for IEM Atlanta

Whoever wins the Premier League title this season might also be able to claim their alumnus played pro Counter-Strike.

Former Arsenal, Manchester City and Nottingham Forest player Oleksandr Zinchenko has played just 20 minutes of football since joining Ajax in February, and might just play more CS than football should Passion UA have any visa issues going to IEM Atlanta.

He has been named as a sub for the team, who recently lost Senzu to BC.Game at the end of his loan and replaced him with another short-term signing in sdy, but if there are any problems getting the line-up to the US, Zinchenko might need to step in.

It won't be the first time Zinchenko has stepped in for the team, as he has averaged a 0.80 rating in a series against BLEED two years ago, but that was a full Ukrainian line-up. He is well-known to be a big proponent of the game (hence starting Passion UA in the first place), and is, for someone who is not professional, pretty damn good.

He's been playing a lot recently (go figure) and sits around level 9 on FACEIT, which, while nowhere near pro or even semi-pro, would put him in the top 1 or 2% of players. He fluctuates a lot and has spent a lot of time at level 10, too, so he's not completely lost in the server.

The issue is that a 2000 ELO player is still light years away from being a pro. He's probably a better CS player than any of his teammates are footballers, though!

It seems cruel to say we're hoping for visa issues, but it would be fun to see Zinchenko on LAN.