German-Austrian video blogger and content creator, Manu Thiele, created his own YouTube channel out of his love for the round leather. It's all about the most popular sport in the world, football. Whether it's breaking news, in-depth analysis or heated discussions about the latest topics and rumors, his channel is filled with new videos every week in creative formats and visually supported by IMAGO. In this IMAGO blog article, Manu Thiele answers all relevant questions about creating viral content on the Internet and how he works.

1) Can you briefly introduce yourself and your YouTube formats to our readers?

With pleasure! My name is Manu Thiele and I actually come from the traditional media, especially radio. I did a traineeship in the sports department of a radio agency responsible for local radio stations in Bavaria. Whether it was football, biathlon, ski jumping, Formula 1 or other sports, I reported on the latest news. Among other things, I was a reporter at the FC Bayern press conferences, and it was absolutely fascinating to experience Pep Guardiola up close. At that time, I also learned my craft for YouTube. The channel "Manu Thiele" exists since 2015, and a hobby has become my profession.

IMAGO / GEPA pictures / David Bitzan | The players of SK Sturm Graz celebrate winning the Austrian Cup 2024.

2) What initially inspired you to create football-related content?

The great thing about it is that you can try out a lot. "Broadcast Yourself" was the motto at the time, and I took advantage of that. My original idea was to try myself out in front of the camera: How do I come across? What do I have to pay attention to? Radio is one thing, but television is something completely different. I wanted to develop and improve myself in order to get a chance at a TV station. Football is a great passion of mine, so it was natural to talk about it. At the time, there was very little football content on YouTube, so I had a blank slate to express myself.

IMAGO / Uwe Kraft | FC Bayern München players Stefan Effenberg (l) and Owen Hargreaves (r) celebrate with Patrik Andersson (m) who just scored a goal in the last minutes of the game against Hamburger SV that saved them the Bundesliga title.

IMAGO / Sven Simon | Florian Wirtz shoots on goal while Virgil van Dijk tries to defend during the Nations League game of the Netherlands against Germany.

3) Can you describe your typical workflow for creating your videos, from idea to upload?

The difference between "traditional" media and YouTube is that YouTube has developed a community over the years. Many ideas are suggestions that viewers give me... this collaboration is unique. 

Step 1 is research, of course: I try to gather as much information as possible about the video topic: there are many sources for this... articles, podcasts, documentaries. I also spend a lot of time on the phone with people in football to understand the background. 

Step 2 is analysis: For me personally, it's important to talk about the game itself, so I watch a lot of football. I have a scouting tool that pre-records scenes for me or allows me to watch entire games in replays. 

Step 3 is writing the script. I try to organize everything I've collected over the days and put it into a finished text. Then I go to the studio, record the video and edit the individual takes. It usually takes 3-4 business days to produce a finished video.

IMAGO / PA Images / Nick Potts | England players celebrate after Harry Kane scored against Finland in his 100th game for the English national team.

4) How do you decide which images to use in your videos? What is important?

I'm a perfectionist when it comes to searching, I pay attention to many little things. First, there are overlays in the split screen that you can see in the videos. I use portrait photos of players and officials. It's important to me that they are alone in the picture and that it's immediately clear who they are. On the other hand, I use a lot of full-screen images. These are high-resolution action shots that describe individual scenes and show what I am trying to explain verbally. If possible, there should be no gap between text and image.

IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire / Javier Borrego | Portrait of head coach Hansi Flick during a press conference of FC Barcelona.

IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire / Ruben Albarran | Kylian Mbappé during his second game for his new club Real Madrid.

5) What do you like about IMAGO and the images you use from us?

IMAGO has an almost infinite number of football photos. One great aspect is the timeliness: during the European Championship, I was doing a match analysis of the German games at night, and I already had all the images I needed. That was great. Then there's another thing: In my day-to-day work, it's important to find the right photo in a short amount of time. The longer I spend looking, the longer it takes to edit the video: Efficiency is really a very important part of my work. The search engine also helps me find old or historical photos quickly.

IMAGO / Uwe Kraft | Jamal Musiala with the ball during Germany's first game of EURO 2024 against Scotland.

IMAGO / Moritz Müller | BVB player Jamie Bynoe-Gittens celebrates after his goal against Eintracht Frankfurt.

6) What tools and programs do you use to edit your videos and incorporate our images?

I use two main programs for production: Adobe Premiere and After Effects. The split-screen photos are cropped in a template so that they fit perfectly into the graphic. The full-screen images each have a frame so that they can be animated and the sources can be properly credited. Personally, it is important to me to not just show the images "naked", but to add effects to them.

Manu Thiele | Screenshot from the YouTube video "Miro Klose: Warum ist er beim 1. FC Nürnberg?!".

Manu Thiele | Screenshot from the YouTube video "Kann Bayer Leverkusen den Titel verteidigen?! | Bundesliga-Prognose Saison 2024/25".

7) What advice would you give content creators about finding and using visual content for their videos? 

Basically, everyone should create content the way they would consume it. Personally, I pay a lot of attention to using images to create new "stimuli". There is actually a graphic or photos that are displayed at all times. This should help make it clear to any viewer what we are talking about: What player am I talking about? What is the topic? It also helps keep viewers tuned in longer. So my tip is: It's better to have too many photos than too few! Make sure the photos show emotion. Is the soccer player angry or happy? There are so many snapshots that give a deep insight and finding them will increase the quality of the finished video. 

IMAGO / Eibner-Pressefoto / Memmler | Ritsu Doan (r) and Lukas Kuebler (l) celebrate after SC Freiburg's goal to make it 2-1 against VfB Stuttgart.

Image selection by Robin Metz