KSI: the multi-talented Mr Olatunji

He has 43.5 million YouTube subscribers and a multimillion-pound business empire. But KSI is also now the proud part-owner of Dagenham & Redbridge FC, located in Barking and Dagenham, one of the country’s most deprived boroughs. Following in the football club-owning footsteps of Ed Sheeran, Ryan Reynolds and Snoop Dogg, KSI has invested in the sixth-tier team in the hope of reviving its fortunes – and to bring investment, opportunities and hope back to a long-neglected community. In an exclusive interview for Big Issue, he tells us that he’s excited for the new season, and that he’s been preparing for the challenge ahead by attending matches to cheer on his new side. “I’m a passionate person,” he says. “So I’ve come down to as many games as I can just to try and push the boys to perform. Now is when we start. Now is when we actually put the work in.”

Also inside

• If The Apprentice winner Tim Campbell were to be hired as PM for an afternoon, he’d have so many good ideas to shake things up
• We visit a charity warehouse in Wigan, supported by Big Issue Invest, where thousands of families are helped every month with essentials
• Wrestling legend Mick Foley’s long road from Hell in a Cell to playing Santa Claus
• How vulnerable households in need of temporary accommodation are being placed far away from everything and everyone they know
• Donal Ryan’s new novel explores teenage grief and trauma within a family that’s hiding secrets
• Paul Greengrass, writer and director of new film The Uprising, explains how the Peasant Revolt of 1381 has obvious parallels with the modern world
• A record shop owner has seen a big upturn in custom, and it’s largely down to Gen Z’s appreciation of vinyl
• The Crystal Palace dinosaurs might be comically out of shape, but that’s no reason to body-shame, says a local who loves them
• And Westgate vendor Richard Broadway is known locally as the dog-whisperer

And much more

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