Scout (association football)

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Player scouts or physical scouts evaluate the talent of footballers with a view to signing them on a professional contract for their employers. Some scouts focus on discovering promising young players and future stars while others are employed to run the rule on potential signings. Smaller clubs might only scout within their own country region, while larger and richer clubs can have extensive international scouting networks.^[1]

Tactical scouts assess the matches of upcoming opponents of the club and prepare dossiers for their teams' tactical preparations. Instead of identifying talent in these matches, the scout assesses the team and each individual player to identify the relative tactical threats and weaknesses in the opposition. Tactical scouts are typically full-time employees of clubs as their knowledge and findings are considered precious to clubs.

Relatively few football scouts are employed full-time, even in the largest professional clubs. By and large, their numbers are made up by talent scouts,^[2] the vast majority of which work part-time, and a club may hire several hundred of scouts. For example, that the Spanish Primera Liga team Sevilla FC has a global scouting network of about 700 player scouts.^[3]

Not all scouts are actually employed by football clubs. For instance, the creators of the Football Manager computer game have their own international network of scouts, and signed an exclusive deal with Premier League side Everton to provide early access to their database of statistics and ratings in 2008.^[4]

Football scouting is a challenging yet thrilling career, marked by unpredictable hours and constant travel, but fueled by the passion for discovering new talent and love for the game.^[5]

Finding players

A player scout typically attends as many football matches as possible to evaluate targets first hand. Scouts who wish to identify promising young players typically attend lower-league club games, where their talent can be compared to older peers, or under-16, 18 and 21 international tournaments. Scouts may also receive tips from agents, peers and club colleagues.^[2] During 2010s, it has become quite common to use online video tools like Wyscout, Instat, Smrt Stats, Kora Stats and the likes to find football players remotely.

It also became quite common to build, store and organize football scouting reports and scouted player databases in the cloud, using innovative softwares like ISF, souscout or ScoutDecision.^[6]

For tactical and opponent analysis, it became very common for scouts and analysts to use specialized football video editing tools, as well as general purpose video editing softwares.

Evaluating players

On the first evaluation, player scouts determine whether a player has the desired technical attributes to succeed at the sport. They then highlight this player to the club management. Some of the desired attributes that scouts look in players include:

• Goalkeepers: good reflexes, communication with defence, one-on-one ability, command of the penalty area and aerial intelligence.^[7]

• Centre-backs: good heading and tackling ability, height, bravery in attempting challenges, concentration.^[8]

• Full-backs: pace, stamina, anticipation, tackling and marking abilities, work rate and team responsibility.^[9]

• Central midfielders: stamina, passing ability, team responsibility, positioning, marking abilities.^[10]

• Wingers: pace, technical ability like dribbling and close control, off-the-ball intelligence, creativity.^[11]

• Forwards: finishing ability, composure, technical ability, heading ability, pace, off-the-ball intelligence.^[12]

Once a player has been recommended to a club, the club may continue to monitor his progress over a period from as little as a few months to as many as a few seasons. Scouts continue to evaluate whether a player has turned in consistent performances, if he has retained his appetite for team responsibilities, and so on.

When the club is satisfied that a player fits the requirements of the club, the club may extend the invitation to the player to attend a trial at the club, where scouts and coaching staff evaluate the player's suitability for the club in terms of his personality and training attitude. Clubs also tend to perform background checks on the player. A trial at the club allows the club to evaluate the standard of the player against players already on its roster. However, in the top leagues, players are typically not allowed to leave training to undertake trials unless they are already out of contract and need to prove their fitness and ability to any clubs interested. Smaller clubs in need of the cash for transfers may also be more amenable to allowing their players to leave on trials.

Once the player has passed these evaluations, the club then starts negotiations with a view to a