Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho pranked football fans at a virtual reality (VR) press conference experience held in the U.K. last week.
Top Eleven, an online soccer management simulation video game with over 160 million players worldwide, invited a number of its users to test what it called a VR “prototype” whereby they pretended to be a soccer manager handling a press conference. Ahead of the experience, participants underwent media coaching, which examined their body language and were provided with interview tips to handle the media.
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Unbeknown to the participants, Mourinho, who has been the brand ambassador for the game for a number of years, was on hand to watch their performances and surprise them once the experience had ended.
In a press release, Marko Jevtic, Product Marketing Manager at Nordeus said: “Beyond tactics and strategy, we wanted to see if our super-users had the skills of top flight managers, by putting them through a brutal press conference. Whilst the VR element isn’t yet planned as an update, we wanted to experiment with this feature, to add a new dimension to the skills we test through our community-led game. So far, feedback has been positive, as we continue to look for ways to push the boundaries of the football management genre.”
Mourinho’s Manchester United kick off their competitive season in the UEFA Super Cup Final against Real Madrid on Aug. 8.