Becoming a football scout is not as glamourous as its perception. The idea of travelling around the world on a paid experience to watch the best matches is far from the reality for many.
The high-profile football betting competitions are not always the focus. There are thousands of motorway miles to be done, challenging hours and often difficulty to make ends meet.
Much like looking at how to become a football agent, the route into football scouting isn’t a fixed path nor is it an easy journey. It’s a competitive field, an industry of soul-crushing ruthlessness.
How To Become A Football Scout:
Scouting has changed. Scribbled notes are no longer the bread and butter of a football scout. Data analysis has taken a major role in recruitment, and scouting has had to adapt.
How teams make decisions has changed, but that doesn’t mean the old-fashioned scout is outdated. The eye test still has value.
For those hoping to get into football scouting, we have compiled a few steps to follow…
Consider Qualifications
The PFSA has an array of scouting qualifications available. They advise starting with the Level 1 Talent Identification in Football – these courses range from tutor-led to entirely online.
Obviously, the cost of these is not insignificant. Potential scouts can be forking out several hundred pounds for the higher level courses and it’s a major time commitment to get the qualification.
While a qualification is a good way to develop a foundational understanding, there’s no point doing all the qualifications if you are not 100% sure that scouting is the path for you.
The FA also offer some scouting courses. These can be a good way to get to know people in the industry, but it’s important to recognise that the qualifications alone will not land a job in scouting.
Pick Your Specialisation
A lot of scouts will change their focus depending on what the club needs or throughout their career. Scouting tends to be broken into two different areas – recruitment and tactics.
The stereotype of a scout is scouring the country for the next bright young talent or flying off to Spain to watch a potential signing, but tactical scouts are every bit as important.
Andre Villas-Boas started out as an opposition scout at Chelsea under Jose Mourinho, watching upcoming opponents and compiling every detail of their play. The aim is to find a tactical advantage and help your team prepare for the match.
Scouts do not have to get locked in to either recruitment or tactical scouting but leaning one way or the other can be helpful when starting out.
Build Contacts
Just like football agents and journalists, a network of contacts will help a scout. It will help to pick up information about a player, help to be made aware of a talent to watch, and it will always be useful to fall back on when looking for work.
When getting started as a scout, the PFSA can be a way to get to know established scouts. It’s a good way to pick up some tips and get an understanding of what is necessary to make it.
Networking is ever important in football, and that’s exaggerated in scouting. Scouts will, on occasion, share information. The more avenues to gather information, the better.
Building a relationship with other scouts, agents and maybe even specific players can only be beneficial.
Be Prepared To Work Hard
Long hours are inevitable in the world of football scouting. Michael Calvin’s award-winning book The Nowhere Men chronicled the grind of a scout, trailing matches far from the glamour of live betting, off the beaten track of elite football.
Scouting is more than a job. It is a way of life, a commitment to unfriendly hours, to insulting pay and chilly nights watching uninspiring football.
It’s a profession driven by the love of the game, and that pure love of football has to be there to succeed as a scout.
Appreciation and recognition can be hard to come by, as is clear in Calvin’s book. Scouts are often viewed as disposable by clubs, particularly when looking to cut costs, and their jobs will often disappear with a change of regime in the dugout or at board level.
Scouts must have a steeliness and an inner belief in their judgement. It won’t always be easy, or even just.
In what is a ferociously competitive business, every scout must throw themselves into the job and be happy to commit what many would deem an unhealthy portion of their life.
Publish Your Work
Communicating your work is a key part of the job. There’s no use picking a player out if you can’t explain what you saw, what impressed you and what you think they need to work on.
Scout reports can take many different forms – they are a skill to be practised, and this should be done constantly as you look to make a name for yourself.
Running a blog or getting a website to publish your analysis can be a great way to get exposure. It’s not only a means to hone your skills, but it can help to develop a reputation and an audience, and perhaps get spotted by a club.
The routine of getting reports to a standard so they can be published is a productive, too. It’s a means to keep standards high, and a way to prove to potential employers what you can do.
Applying for scouting positions is a lot easier if there’s a track record of your reports.
It’s not a necessity, but there’s a growing number of scouts and analysts who got their foot in the door through work published online. Anything that can get your insight noticed can help make the step from hobbyist to professional football scout.
*Credit for the main photo belongs to Arne Dedert/ AP Photo*
FIRST PUBLISHED: 3rd December 2020
