BOX2BOX
WHAT’S IT TO YA?
October 16, 2026
It’s one thing to debate, joke around and have a good time with the homies; turning that chemistry into entertainment is another thing entirely. Adriano “Mili” Miliziano, Anthony “Varvar” Varvaro, Luca “Ferms” Fermini and Luca “Pala” Plazzese made that leap with their YouTube channel, Box2Box. Hailing from different boroughs of Montreal, the four turned their shared passion into a successful online platform that grew beyond the screen to become part of the culture itself.
How did Box2Box first come together?
Mili: We all went to high school, CEGEP (pre-university college in Quebec), and university together. We’ve been debating football every day since we were 13, so it’s always been a big part of our lives. During COVID, we’d debate in our group chats and started seeing people creating content on TikTok, so we thought, “Why not give it a shot?” We’re four guys with good personalities, so we found some audio equipment, started experimenting, and figured out what worked and what didn’t.
Pala: It never started off as something to make money, we just wanted to talk about football. Let’s just post it, we’re doing it anyway. At first we weren’t sure about posting it online, but as soon as we started posting, we saw people debating in our comment section, and that motivated us to continue. Then we started posting on TikTok every day, and making it digestible for someone who doesn’t have time to watch football every day. That was the mission at first.
Ferms: In North America, no one was really talking about football like we were. Even without backgrounds as Italians, we follow the Premier League as well, and we’re very in-tune with European football. We started talking about it, went to a couple of games and started footy tic-tac-toe that went viral at one point. We really show our personalities with the show, and our biases too.
Varvar: The way Europeans talk about football is often very serious. In North America, if you look at the NBA, NHL or NFL, the coverage is a lot more fun and entertaining. We wanted to take the best parts of North American sports culture and bring them to football. When people talk about football, they tend to focus on tactics and try to be the smartest person in the room. That’s not what we’re trying to do.
How did Box2Box first come together?
Mili: We all went to high school, CEGEP (pre-university college in Quebec), and university together. We’ve been debating football every day since we were 13, so it’s always been a big part of our lives. During COVID, we’d debate in our group chats and started seeing people creating content on TikTok, so we thought, “Why not give it a shot?” We’re four guys with good personalities, so we found some audio equipment, started experimenting, and figured out what worked and what didn’t.
Pala: It never started off as something to make money, we just wanted to talk about football. Let’s just post it, we’re doing it anyway. At first we weren’t sure about posting it online, but as soon as we started posting, we saw people debating in our comment section, and that motivated us to continue. Then we started posting on TikTok every day, and making it digestible for someone who doesn’t have time to watch football every day. That was the mission at first.
Ferms: In North America, no one was really talking about football like we were. Even without backgrounds as Italians, we follow the Premier League as well, and we’re very in-tune with European football. We started talking about it, went to a couple of games and started footy tic-tac-toe that went viral at one point. We really show our personalities with the show, and our biases too.
Varvar: The way Europeans talk about football is often very serious. In North America, if you look at the NBA, NHL or NFL, the coverage is a lot more fun and entertaining. We wanted to take the best parts of North American sports culture and bring them to football. When people talk about football, they tend to focus on tactics and try to be the smartest person in the room. That’s not what we’re trying to do.
What clubs do you all support?
Mili: I don’t remember it myself, but there are photos of me playing when I was four years old. As I got older, though, I became more of a viewer than a player. My love for Serie A and European football came from my grandfather, who was a die-hard Inter Milan fan. He introduced me to the game, and I always wanted to be involved in football, just not as a player.
Pala: I loved football when I was younger, and my uncle introduced me to Juventus. I would always watch games whenever I went to his house. Then I started playing competitively, and the years I was playing at the highest levels were also the years I started losing my love for football. I didn’t even want to follow it anymore.
I was playing five or six times a week, and it started to feel more like a chore. Football became fun again when I stopped playing competitively and started playing with my friends. It brought me back to the roots of why I loved the game, and I started watching it again. The banter made me want to watch more and find reasons to give them a hard time. I started loving football again.
Varvar: No one in my family watched football. I was the first. My parents don’t know a single player besides someone like Pirlo, because they’d watch the World Cup. I played football growing up, but I never loved playing it that much. I liked it, but I preferred watching people who were actually good at it.
Ferms: I was born in Rome, so in Italy, the first sport you play is football. There’s no choice. All your friends are playing. Funny enough, though, my parents never forced me to play, and they weren’t big football fans themselves. My grandfather would go to Roma or Lazio games. For me, it was about the community I grew up in. Everyone was playing. When I moved to Montreal in 2013, I made other friends who loved talking about football.
You started out on TikTok. Was that because it was the most accessible platform to get started on?
Varvar: We actually started on YouTube, but we never publicly posted anything. We watched other people and thought, “This is easy to replicate.” We recorded ourselves and watched it back, and we were like, “Wow, this is absolute dog shit.” That went on for about two months.
Ferms: We had the idea, but the execution was horrendous. We had no experience.
Varvar: We said to ourselves, “We can’t entertain people for an hour right now. Let’s try to entertain them for one minute before we get to an hour.” TikTok was booming during COVID, so we decided to give it a shot. We posted clips from our original videos, and they did well. We hit 10,000 views, which we thought was pretty good. We started getting into it.
Our audio and video quality were bad, and we were still shy in front of the camera. So how could we get people interacting with our posts? We started discussing debatable topics to get people engaging in the comments.
People would watch the video, have our voices in their heads, and then type away in the comment section. We started posting videos with thousands of comments. Our comment section became a town hall discussion. After every video, we looked for ways to improve the next one. We were still in school, but we made sure to post a TikTok every day.
Varvar: It’s cliché, but they say consistency is key when you’re trying to become a social media influencer. It’s true. We never missed a day. Once we gained traction on TikTok, we decided to try YouTube. We followed the same process. At first, the quality wasn’t great, but we introduced formats that people liked and posted regularly. Over time, you get better, and people start watching for your personality rather than just the content of the video.
Mili: At first, Varvar edited all the videos. We did everything in-house. When he started editing YouTube videos, he needed help with TikTok, so Ferms, Pala and I sat down and did a crash course in editing TikToks. We set up a schedule and took turns editing while Varvar focused on YouTube.
Varvar: We hired an intern through an Instagram ad, and he still works with us today. Now, everyone else who works with us is a fan of the channel. We want to build a bond with the people we work with and make sure they understand how we do things.
Pala: We’ve found what works for us, and it’s about finding people who are passionate about football. We share a mutual interest, which makes that process easier.
Mili: I don’t remember it myself, but there are photos of me playing when I was four years old. As I got older, though, I became more of a viewer than a player. My love for Serie A and European football came from my grandfather, who was a die-hard Inter Milan fan. He introduced me to the game, and I always wanted to be involved in football, just not as a player.
Pala: I loved football when I was younger, and my uncle introduced me to Juventus. I would always watch games whenever I went to his house. Then I started playing competitively, and the years I was playing at the highest levels were also the years I started losing my love for football. I didn’t even want to follow it anymore.
I was playing five or six times a week, and it started to feel more like a chore. Football became fun again when I stopped playing competitively and started playing with my friends. It brought me back to the roots of why I loved the game, and I started watching it again. The banter made me want to watch more and find reasons to give them a hard time. I started loving football again.
Varvar: No one in my family watched football. I was the first. My parents don’t know a single player besides someone like Pirlo, because they’d watch the World Cup. I played football growing up, but I never loved playing it that much. I liked it, but I preferred watching people who were actually good at it.
Ferms: I was born in Rome, so in Italy, the first sport you play is football. There’s no choice. All your friends are playing. Funny enough, though, my parents never forced me to play, and they weren’t big football fans themselves. My grandfather would go to Roma or Lazio games. For me, it was about the community I grew up in. Everyone was playing. When I moved to Montreal in 2013, I made other friends who loved talking about football.
You started out on TikTok. Was that because it was the most accessible platform to get started on?
Varvar: We actually started on YouTube, but we never publicly posted anything. We watched other people and thought, “This is easy to replicate.” We recorded ourselves and watched it back, and we were like, “Wow, this is absolute dog shit.” That went on for about two months.
Ferms: We had the idea, but the execution was horrendous. We had no experience.
Varvar: We said to ourselves, “We can’t entertain people for an hour right now. Let’s try to entertain them for one minute before we get to an hour.” TikTok was booming during COVID, so we decided to give it a shot. We posted clips from our original videos, and they did well. We hit 10,000 views, which we thought was pretty good. We started getting into it.
Our audio and video quality were bad, and we were still shy in front of the camera. So how could we get people interacting with our posts? We started discussing debatable topics to get people engaging in the comments.
People would watch the video, have our voices in their heads, and then type away in the comment section. We started posting videos with thousands of comments. Our comment section became a town hall discussion. After every video, we looked for ways to improve the next one. We were still in school, but we made sure to post a TikTok every day.
Varvar: It’s cliché, but they say consistency is key when you’re trying to become a social media influencer. It’s true. We never missed a day. Once we gained traction on TikTok, we decided to try YouTube. We followed the same process. At first, the quality wasn’t great, but we introduced formats that people liked and posted regularly. Over time, you get better, and people start watching for your personality rather than just the content of the video.
Mili: At first, Varvar edited all the videos. We did everything in-house. When he started editing YouTube videos, he needed help with TikTok, so Ferms, Pala and I sat down and did a crash course in editing TikToks. We set up a schedule and took turns editing while Varvar focused on YouTube.
Varvar: We hired an intern through an Instagram ad, and he still works with us today. Now, everyone else who works with us is a fan of the channel. We want to build a bond with the people we work with and make sure they understand how we do things.
Pala: We’ve found what works for us, and it’s about finding people who are passionate about football. We share a mutual interest, which makes that process easier.
What’s the YouTube footy community like?
Pala: If you look at it as a Venn diagram, you have FIFA/EAFC on one side and football knowledge on the other, with a lot of people in between. Those people will consume mindless FIFA content but occasionally jump into an actual football debate. How do you pull them in? Do you focus on the people who only consume FIFA content, or do you go after the die-hard podcast listeners? You’re caught in the middle, trying to figure out how to reach the most people.
Ferms: We try to appeal to both fan bases by putting our podcast on YouTube and making videos that gamify football, like ranking clubs. We give people an avenue to consume both types of content.
Varvar: It’s cool to see people from all around the world talking to each other during our livestreams. One guy from the US could be talking, and a guy from Australia could be responding.
Mili: Even with different nationalities and backgrounds, football is something everyone can relate to. People are able to watch us and see themselves in us. When we make a video, it’s genuine. We make each other laugh or piss each other off. This is how we talk as friends. We want the community to feel like they’re hanging out with friends and are part of that friend group. That’s what separates us from other creators.
Pala: This is why Micah Richards and Jamie Carragher do well. That format makes it entertaining for us as viewers.
Have you guys talked about expanding into more North American footy?
Varvar: Because we have a core audience of European football fans, we try to connect MLS and CPL to the European football conversation. Whenever we talk about Drogba, we call him a “CF Montréal legend,” or we wear a CF Montréal jersey in our videos. Maybe by doing that, we’re raising awareness of these clubs in Canada. We try to make it digestible for the European fan.
Pala: That’s why we created the podcast. It allows us to talk about whatever we want. It’s tough to make a TikTok about MLS because there’s less traction and viewership. For example, we spent fifteen minutes talking about Ismaël Koné in last week’s video. We started a conversation, and now people have been following his career.
Varvar: We can make a quick joke like, “William Saliba isn’t even the best Saliba,” and the audience gets it.
Mili: When people watch us, it’s not solely about Canadian football. It’s about integrating it into what we’re already doing. Even in our games, we incorporate MLS or CanMNT jerseys.
Pala: If you look at it as a Venn diagram, you have FIFA/EAFC on one side and football knowledge on the other, with a lot of people in between. Those people will consume mindless FIFA content but occasionally jump into an actual football debate. How do you pull them in? Do you focus on the people who only consume FIFA content, or do you go after the die-hard podcast listeners? You’re caught in the middle, trying to figure out how to reach the most people.
Ferms: We try to appeal to both fan bases by putting our podcast on YouTube and making videos that gamify football, like ranking clubs. We give people an avenue to consume both types of content.
Varvar: It’s cool to see people from all around the world talking to each other during our livestreams. One guy from the US could be talking, and a guy from Australia could be responding.
Mili: Even with different nationalities and backgrounds, football is something everyone can relate to. People are able to watch us and see themselves in us. When we make a video, it’s genuine. We make each other laugh or piss each other off. This is how we talk as friends. We want the community to feel like they’re hanging out with friends and are part of that friend group. That’s what separates us from other creators.
Pala: This is why Micah Richards and Jamie Carragher do well. That format makes it entertaining for us as viewers.
Have you guys talked about expanding into more North American footy?
Varvar: Because we have a core audience of European football fans, we try to connect MLS and CPL to the European football conversation. Whenever we talk about Drogba, we call him a “CF Montréal legend,” or we wear a CF Montréal jersey in our videos. Maybe by doing that, we’re raising awareness of these clubs in Canada. We try to make it digestible for the European fan.
Pala: That’s why we created the podcast. It allows us to talk about whatever we want. It’s tough to make a TikTok about MLS because there’s less traction and viewership. For example, we spent fifteen minutes talking about Ismaël Koné in last week’s video. We started a conversation, and now people have been following his career.
Varvar: We can make a quick joke like, “William Saliba isn’t even the best Saliba,” and the audience gets it.
Mili: When people watch us, it’s not solely about Canadian football. It’s about integrating it into what we’re already doing. Even in our games, we incorporate MLS or CanMNT jerseys.
Was there a moment when you guys realized this has become something bigger than just a hobby?
Mili: From the jump, honestly.
Varvar: Very early, we saw the potential that this could become our full-time thing for all of us. When we started TikTok, it was not normal to have 50,000 followers in less than 6 months from starting and then have 300,000 in two weeks. Stuff like that, we realize we can make this into something. We all wake up in the morning and get excited to come in, it’s not work.
Ferms: Through our time making content, we have peaks like FIFA reaching out to us or doing content at the Real Madrid training facility. Or being able to go to the Club World Cup. Those are the peaks, and we want those to be constant. We’re trying for that.
Mili: If we get those now, imagine what we can get in a year or two. I agree with Varvar, once we saw all four of us had the drive to make it successful, we were all working to make this a full-time thing. We’re all in school too, school was a priority and we made sure to finish university.
Pala: Those were tough times. After classes, we came here and recorded an episode. Then go home and finish our assignments.
By looking around your office, it is clear that you are organized, disciplined, yet still having fun. Does the work organization help with the creative process, or does your creativity make the behind-the-scenes work fluid?
Mili: This is a conversation we have all the time. You cannot dedicate time for a creative process. We want to give us enough time to full flesh out an idea, see if it’s successful or if we need props or a set, we give ourselves time for that. With organization, you can get all that done. But with the creative process, we don’t put a barrier on it. We give it the time it needs.
Varvar: I called Ferms at 1 am with a video idea.
Ferms: And then we debate and realize that it could be a good idea for a video. We end up discussing an idea at an ungodly time. If we were to be working a 9 to 5, he wouldn’t have called me, and the idea would never have happened.
Pala: The 9 to 5 kills creativity, a lot of people in the creative space work odd hours. We are still learning a lot about the creative process because of our backgrounds in school. Ferms and Varvar studied finance, I studied mechanical engineering, and Mili studied political science. Finance and engineering is very linear in thinking. Creativity is not linear. Sometimes we will spend three hours on an idea, give up, revisit the next day and have it done in 20 minutes. It’s about where you are and what you’re doing.
Ferms: Sometimes you have to be unproductive to find creativity. That can mean you go out with your friends, and then you meet a Chelsea fan and you think of a Chelsea episode.
Varvar: Overscheduling can hurt the creative process, it’s going to start feeling like a job.
Pala: KDB is the creative process, and Aguero is the final product. One assist and the other finishes.
Each of you have a collection of kits. What are your favourites, or the ones you have the deepest connection with?
Mili: I went to the 2022-2023 Champions League semi-final for the second leg, Inter Milan vs AC Milan. It was my first time at the San Siro and my first time in Italy. When I was there, I told myself I’d get a kit, and I got a Bastoni kit. I consider this one to be the most special one. We ended up winning that game, I was able to experience that with my brother and experience Italy for the first time. It has the most connections for me.
Pala: I have a funny kit. In 2020, in the hype up for the Euros, for some reason, we were all bullish about Italy. Going into the tournament, we didn’t have the best team, but we had a feeling it was going to be a good tournament. Everyone was rushing to the stores buying Italy kits, and for some reason, the only one left in my size was a #9 Belotti jersey. I wanted the number because the gold looks great with the green Italy kit. As a Juventus fan with a Torino player on the kit, it is a little sacrilegious. That tournament ended up being the best summer of my life. We watched every game together, and we partied with all the Italians in the East End.
Varvar: For me, it’s a kit I no longer own. It was a 2006 Totti Italy kid’s kit. At this time, I wasn’t even a football fan but for some reason, I was a massive Totti fan. He was the GOAT. He was my favourite player to watch, he was the best, he was like my Ronaldo or my Messi back then. I remember my mom brought me home from school early, and we watched the game. I walk to the basement, but I remember a lot of people watching the game. Since Italy won the World Cup in 2006, my mom made sure I always kept that kit.
Ferms: It has to be a Milan kit, especially the one when they won the Scudetto in 2021. But you're talking about experience, there is this one Roma kit I bought while I was in Rome. One day, my friend and I wanted to go to a game, and he surprised me with seats in the Ultra stands. I don’t know the chants, and that’s the craziest Ultras in Italy. I had to go buy Roma kits. We ended up sneaking in for free and sat in the Ultras section. If you don’t sing, they’ll notice and they'll call you out. It was an experience.
Mili: We have a kit that is pretty cool, we have the Canada kit signed by Ismael Kone while he was at CF Montreal. Our barber downstairs tipped us off that Kone was coming. I bought a CanMNT jersey and pretended to set up the podcast studio. Kone came in, and the barber told him that we do soccer content. I ended up meeting him, and he signed our jersey. The next day, he left for Watford. That was pretty cool.
Photos: Ararsa KitabaMili: From the jump, honestly.
Varvar: Very early, we saw the potential that this could become our full-time thing for all of us. When we started TikTok, it was not normal to have 50,000 followers in less than 6 months from starting and then have 300,000 in two weeks. Stuff like that, we realize we can make this into something. We all wake up in the morning and get excited to come in, it’s not work.
Ferms: Through our time making content, we have peaks like FIFA reaching out to us or doing content at the Real Madrid training facility. Or being able to go to the Club World Cup. Those are the peaks, and we want those to be constant. We’re trying for that.
Mili: If we get those now, imagine what we can get in a year or two. I agree with Varvar, once we saw all four of us had the drive to make it successful, we were all working to make this a full-time thing. We’re all in school too, school was a priority and we made sure to finish university.
Pala: Those were tough times. After classes, we came here and recorded an episode. Then go home and finish our assignments.
By looking around your office, it is clear that you are organized, disciplined, yet still having fun. Does the work organization help with the creative process, or does your creativity make the behind-the-scenes work fluid?
Mili: This is a conversation we have all the time. You cannot dedicate time for a creative process. We want to give us enough time to full flesh out an idea, see if it’s successful or if we need props or a set, we give ourselves time for that. With organization, you can get all that done. But with the creative process, we don’t put a barrier on it. We give it the time it needs.
Varvar: I called Ferms at 1 am with a video idea.
Ferms: And then we debate and realize that it could be a good idea for a video. We end up discussing an idea at an ungodly time. If we were to be working a 9 to 5, he wouldn’t have called me, and the idea would never have happened.
Pala: The 9 to 5 kills creativity, a lot of people in the creative space work odd hours. We are still learning a lot about the creative process because of our backgrounds in school. Ferms and Varvar studied finance, I studied mechanical engineering, and Mili studied political science. Finance and engineering is very linear in thinking. Creativity is not linear. Sometimes we will spend three hours on an idea, give up, revisit the next day and have it done in 20 minutes. It’s about where you are and what you’re doing.
Ferms: Sometimes you have to be unproductive to find creativity. That can mean you go out with your friends, and then you meet a Chelsea fan and you think of a Chelsea episode.
Varvar: Overscheduling can hurt the creative process, it’s going to start feeling like a job.
Pala: KDB is the creative process, and Aguero is the final product. One assist and the other finishes.
Each of you have a collection of kits. What are your favourites, or the ones you have the deepest connection with?
Mili: I went to the 2022-2023 Champions League semi-final for the second leg, Inter Milan vs AC Milan. It was my first time at the San Siro and my first time in Italy. When I was there, I told myself I’d get a kit, and I got a Bastoni kit. I consider this one to be the most special one. We ended up winning that game, I was able to experience that with my brother and experience Italy for the first time. It has the most connections for me.
Pala: I have a funny kit. In 2020, in the hype up for the Euros, for some reason, we were all bullish about Italy. Going into the tournament, we didn’t have the best team, but we had a feeling it was going to be a good tournament. Everyone was rushing to the stores buying Italy kits, and for some reason, the only one left in my size was a #9 Belotti jersey. I wanted the number because the gold looks great with the green Italy kit. As a Juventus fan with a Torino player on the kit, it is a little sacrilegious. That tournament ended up being the best summer of my life. We watched every game together, and we partied with all the Italians in the East End.
Varvar: For me, it’s a kit I no longer own. It was a 2006 Totti Italy kid’s kit. At this time, I wasn’t even a football fan but for some reason, I was a massive Totti fan. He was the GOAT. He was my favourite player to watch, he was the best, he was like my Ronaldo or my Messi back then. I remember my mom brought me home from school early, and we watched the game. I walk to the basement, but I remember a lot of people watching the game. Since Italy won the World Cup in 2006, my mom made sure I always kept that kit.
Ferms: It has to be a Milan kit, especially the one when they won the Scudetto in 2021. But you're talking about experience, there is this one Roma kit I bought while I was in Rome. One day, my friend and I wanted to go to a game, and he surprised me with seats in the Ultra stands. I don’t know the chants, and that’s the craziest Ultras in Italy. I had to go buy Roma kits. We ended up sneaking in for free and sat in the Ultras section. If you don’t sing, they’ll notice and they'll call you out. It was an experience.
Mili: We have a kit that is pretty cool, we have the Canada kit signed by Ismael Kone while he was at CF Montreal. Our barber downstairs tipped us off that Kone was coming. I bought a CanMNT jersey and pretended to set up the podcast studio. Kone came in, and the barber told him that we do soccer content. I ended up meeting him, and he signed our jersey. The next day, he left for Watford. That was pretty cool.
Interview: Gisoo Kim