Darragh Kelly is in flying form in this year’s Fantasy Premier League. He is currently sitting in 2nd place in the world league table (out of 1.9 million players) and 1st place in Ireland  (out of 68 thousand players).

Speaking to the Killarney Advertiser this week we asked Darragh what is the secret to reaching the summit of the football strategy and statistics game - “Well, I am a Manchester United fan but I have had no United player in my team all year! It could be the fact that I have so little faith in my team I support at the moment”.

The game, for those who don’t know, is loosely based on virtual football management strategy, where you pick a squad of Premier League players within a certain budget and score points based on each individual player’s performance/points tally each week. 

Darragh explained that this is new territory for him, having never really performed well previous years. He explained that he was floating around the top 2,000  players in the world for a number of weeks but then took a chance on South Korean and Wolves sharp shooter Hwang Hee-chan just as he started to rack up his goal scoring tally.

“I drafted him early, before a lot of other players had him. I think he is on 10 goals and 3 assists for the season so far so his form has helped a lot.”

This move catapulted him in to the top 25 a few weeks ago and as of last week’s games he is now sitting just one behind the leader in the world league and top of the Irish league. 

Darragh explained “ I had Areola in goals and I bought Phil Foden in last week too. Not many of the players around me had those two so when they got 11 and 12 points each from last week’s games it gave my total score a good boost”

The Kilcummin native, who is a veterinary surgeon by trade, will be dissecting next week’s fantasy football form from sunny Gran Canaria, where he is currently holidaying with his partner and family. While things have been going well for him so far, the next few weeks pose a big challenge. 

 “My selections the next few weeks will be important, with popular picks such as Mo Salah (Liverpool) and Son Heung-min (Spurs) off to the Africa Cup of Nations, I will have to choose my replacements wisely”