Those 90-minute soccer matches fly by in the blink of an eye.
Apparently, so does Celine Dept’s eponymous YouTube channel.
Despite starting her channel in May 2023, the Belgian soccer player soared to nearly 50 million subscribers. Part of that, to be fair, comes from Dept’s already-established presence on TikTok and a separate YouTube channel that she runs with her boyfriend. Still, her explosion onto the YouTube scene remains impressive.
That rise to fame doesn’t leave much time for Dept to upload too many long-form videos: Since her account’s creation, she’s posted fewer than 50 of them as of this review—most of which feature Dept competing in a variety of soccer-based challenges or meeting with famous professional players.
Instead, most of Dept’s channel is dedicated to creating shorts. Making up the rest of the 1.4 thousand uploads to her channel, Dept’s short-form videos likewise consist of a variety of soccer challenges, like spelling a famous player’s name lest she gets thrown into a pool, completing shots on goal while wearing unhelpful footwear and attempting to hit the crossbar with a variety of balls.
But just how … Messi … do things get?
Dept’s love of the beautiful game is evident. Viewers will quickly recognize her passion for soccer and may nurture a similar enthusiasm for it through her videos.
Dept and others often compete in a variety of fun soccer-centric games that showcase and hone their skills. Some of the shots they’re able to pull off are impressive. The channel may encourage aspiring soccer players to continue to practice diligently.
We also get to meet some professional soccer players on her channel, and many of them are quite friendly and humble. The players often stop by to compete in a variety of challenges for Dept’s channel, and they occasionally provide advice on how to improve ball-handling skills.
A man briefly takes off his shirt in celebration for scoring a goal. Someone makes a joke about “touching a man’s banana” (the man kept a fake rubber banana hanging from his back pocket). And when they say the word “but,” they often flash a picture of a peach emoji onscreen (text lingo for someone’s rear), sometimes accompanied by fart noises.
The channel also excessively extols some famous soccer players—challenges are built around them, and some videos simply showcase Dept meeting them. While it is certainly exciting to meet celebrities to whom you look up, viewers should be careful not to drift from excitement into idol worship.
The s-word is used once but censored. We hear one use of “d–n” in a background song. God’s name is used in vain once.
Celine Dept, the channel, remains fairly light on content, save for a couple crude moments that parents will need to judge for themselves. Instead, Dept’s soccer-centric channel brings many challenges to the forefront, and her enthusiasm may encourage a viewer or two to pull that deflated ball out of the garage and pick up practicing again.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He’s also an avid cook. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
