Ali Thameem
Aik Abdhullah Rifau, 22, and his FPL team ‘Nexus FC’ have risen to the top of the Maldives leaderboard on the final day of the Fantasy Premier League season.
With a total of 2652 points from 38 game weeks, Nexus FC ended up with a seventeen-point edge over the second-placed team ‘Hawk Tuanzebe’, managed by Mohamed Udhayyu.
Over sixteen thousand Maldivians managed a fantasy football team this season. Aik’s 2652 points puts Nexus FC in the top 0.012% of all FPL teams worldwide. According to the Premier League website, a record-breaking 11.5 million fans managed a fantasy football team this season.
“I did not think it was possible (to win the Maldives FPL League) until the final few game weeks, when my team rose to the top ten”, says Aik. Heading into the final game week, Nexus FC was in third place, 16 points behind the first-placed ‘Naijo FC’, managed by Najih Jameel, a Liverpool fan.
“I decided to test my luck and try a different captain.” Aik handed the captain’s armband to West Ham United’s Jarrod Bowen, who gave 26 points in return. But what made the real difference in the final week was Aik’s decision to transfer in Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo, who went on to score two goals and give Aik 16 points.
On Sunday night, all ten games of the final week of the season kicked off at once. Although Aik was unable to watch the games live, he kept the score notifications on for the games. “I was at a MNU Futsal game that night, coaching one of the girls’ team”, says Aik. “But I was checking my phone for score updates while I was at the game”.
Aik is a physiotherapy student at the Maldives National University, and plays futsal and volleyball. An Arsenal fan, Aik has owned a Fantasy Premier League team for the past ten seasons.
Nexus: Inside the Strategy of Aik Rifau’s FPL Masterclass
Just as most successful FPL managers this season, Aik’s favorite captain pick had been Liverpool winger Mohamed Salah. Although Aik tried fourteen different captain picks over the course of the season, Salah was given the armband in nine game weeks.
The FPL champ started the season with Erling Haaland as his choice of captain in most of the first ten game weeks. But after the City striker blanked in three consecutive game weeks, Aik took away the arm band and transferred Haaland out for game week nine, and did not buy him back ever since.
Aik made use of the “Mystery Chip” Assistant Manager in game weeks 24, 25 and 26, using David Moyes, Unai Emery and Oliver Glasner respectively. The three Assistant Managers gave Nexus FC a combined 56-point boost.
Aik’s choice for triple captain – the chip he played in game week 32 – had been Newcastle United striker Alexander Isak. He had played his second Wild Card the previous week. Triple Captain Isak delivered Aik with 33 points. He went on to play Bench Boost in double-game week 33, gaining 82 points.
Nexus FC kept climbing up the ranks as Aik’s ‘Free Hit’ chip in blank-game week 34 worked with an anomalous 90 points.
As the new king of Maldives Fantasy Football, Aik and his team Nexus FC is at the top of 30 FPL mini leagues. A number of these mini leagues had allocated hefty winners’ prizes for the champion team, all of which will be secured by the newest local champion of Fantasy Football, Aik Abdhulla Rifau.
