Dinis Cardoso

Liverpool FC caught a lot of attention recently for advertising a job vacancy for a Set Piece Coach on LinkedIn. Last season, they scored 15 goals from set pieces, coming in 5th in the Premier League. Although 5th place is respectable, Liverpool wanted a change and turned to traditional job postings to find new talent. More and more teams are adopting this approach, which presents opportunities for professionals in the sports industry and a wider range of applicants from other industries looking for a career switch to football. Here are a few tips for people looking to make a career move to a full-time role in football. 1. Tailor Your CV in Terms of Sports Your CV is your first impression, so make sure it reflects your passion and experience in sports. Highlight any relevant activities, achievements, or roles that demonstrate your skills and interest in football. Avoid unprofessional photos, confusing designs, and a lack of a clear career plan. Your CV should tell a story of your journey and your aspirations in the football industry. 2. Make Contact with Recruiters in the Industry Networking is crucial in any industry, and football is no different. Use platforms like LinkedIn and Xing to connect with recruiters and industry professionals. For more specialized job opportunities, visit websites like FutbolJobs, Jobs4Football, Jobs In Football, and Football Careers. Building relationships can open doors to opportunities you might not find through traditional job searches. 3. Focus on New Roles Rising in the Sport The football industry is evolving, and new roles are emerging, particularly in IT and data analysis. These positions are becoming increasingly important for teams looking to gain a competitive edge. If you have expertise in IT, data science, or analytics, you might find that your skills are in high demand. 4. Be Ready for Temporary Job Downgrades and Volunteer Roles Breaking into a new industry can be challenging, and you might need to start with temporary or lower-level positions. Volunteering or taking on internships can provide valuable experience and help you build a network within the industry. Be patient and persistent, as these roles can be stepping stones to more permanent and higher-level positions. 5. There is Never a Perfect Candidate for a Job Many applicants hesitate to apply for roles unless they meet 100% of the requirements. However, employers often look for candidates who fulfill 80-90% of the criteria and have the potential to grow into the role. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t check every box—if you believe you can add value to the team, go ahead and apply. Conclusion Transitioning to a full-time role in football requires a strategic approach and a willingness to adapt. By tailoring your CV, networking with industry professionals, focusing on emerging roles, being open to temporary or volunteer positions, and understanding that perfection isn't required, you can increase your chances of breaking into this exciting field. Keep your passion for the game alive, and stay dedicated to your career goals.

At ScoutDecision, we have contacted with many scouts: we know know the difficulties of earning a living by identifying talent. Identifying and selecting football talent is not an easy job. It's a complex process that's crucial for the success of both clubs and national teams but most of the time it is treated like a cost and not an investment. In today’s world, being a football scout involves a mix of keen perception, advanced technology, and a whole lot of travel. But after all, what do scouts do? Why should we value their work? Let's dive into it: What is Talent? When scouts talk about talent, they’re not just looking at how fast someone can run or how many goals they’ve scored. Talent is a blend of genetics, physical and cognitive skills, social abilities, motivation, and creativity. Scouts assess these attributes to determine if a young player has what it takes to make it big. They look for a combination of traits that can include a player’s height, weight, speed, agility, playing intelligence, and mental strength but also social skills and family background. What is a Scouting Process? Scouts spend countless hours watching games, analyzing performance, and writing detailed reports. They look at everything from a player's physical attributes and technical skills to their decision-making abilities and mental resilience. Good scout need to be great communicators: to express their opinions in football terms, super organized: to work in a fast-moving football organization and able to use advanced software. The job often requires flexible hours and a lot of travel. It's not just about what you see on the pitch; it’s about piecing together a complete picture of a player’s potential. What are the characteristics of a Scout? A well-organized and efficient scouting department means significant financial returns for every football club or agency. Scouting is challenging, demanding, and intensive. The life of a scout involves many working hours, travels, observing several games a day, and organizing meetings with parents and agents to make offers for trials with covered transportation costs. Modern scouting includes submitting various reports. Despite technological advancements, scouting remains an instinct-driven activity, where the foundations of talent identification lie in patience, perseverance, and the ability to identify potential elite athletes based on comprehensive evaluations. What are the main challenges of a scout? Biases can creep in based on a player’s background. For instance, there's a tendency to generalize players from certain regions, with South American players often seen as more technically gifted compared to those from Scandinavia or Southeast Europe. While some of these generalizations are true (statistically speaking), they can lead to biases that overlook talented individuals from less recognized regions. Economic conditions also play a significant role. Wealthier clubs have the luxury of targeting prominent countries known for producing top talent, whereas smaller clubs often need to focus on less attractive regions due to smaller budgets. What tools do scouts use? Technology has revolutionized scouting. Modern scouts use sophisticated software to evaluate everything from a player’s physical condition to their tactical overview. Program have sped up the data collection process, allowing scouts to gather and analyze vast amounts of information quickly. Advanced software systems help in data collection from various sources and the implementation of mathematical models to predict success or failure. This often requires professional knowledge to handle these systems effectively. Software packages can provide valuable insights, but the human element—intuition, experience, and judgment remains irreplaceable. Conclusion Being a football scout today is a unique blend of art and science. It requires a deep understanding of the game, the ability to analyze data, and the intuition to spot talent that others might overlook. Despite the advancements in technology, scouting is still about the instinct and experience of the scout. It’s about seeing something special in a player that the data might not fully capture - it takes patience, persistence and attention to detail. You don't want to look at stats only but you don't want to lose any information you register.

As an agent, you deal with dozens and dozens of athletes. This amount of information can be overwhelming and relying solely on memory can be challenging when working in the fast-paced environment of football. Independently of where you are in your career, your player database is your secret sauce, it's the reason you stay ahead of the competition and why players and clubs choose to work with you. Here are some of the reasons why a player database is essential for a top football agent. Talent ID: You watch players, you write down how good these players are, how you see yourself working with them and recognize their qualities. You need a place to store all this information: videos, notes, player's bio details and expectations about salary and market value. Excel and Word are accessible tools, good to start with but: do you want to be working with hundreds of documents scattered around your PC? How will you find these during a meeting or when you are travelling? You need a database tailored to what football agents need. Network and Relationships: The sooner you establish a relationship with a player, the longer they will trust you with their careers, even before they achieve success. You want to discover players before everyone else. A dedicated database allows you keep track of players progress, following them up close and building a solid source of information and the foundation for long-lasting, sucessful partnerships. Strategic Planning: Some of your players have dreams of becoming world stars, others prioritize being close to their families and others don't mind travelling half way across the World to get minutes on the pitch. A database to manage your players builds up a lot of information, data, videos over the years. Merge your knowledge of the player and their ambitions, design a career plan for them and advise them on what's best for them. A dedicated platform allows you to gather the knowledge to best help your players find themselves and guide their career. Club Requests: You are good at networking, you have a wide network of sports directors and clubs who trust you to supply them with players. They send you requests with specific requirements. Maybe they need a young tall center-back to add depth in defence or they need a budget experienced center-forward who can finish from close range. Club requests change a lot and are numerous during the transfer window. You don't have time to waste looking for the information: manually looking on your notes or going through Excel sheets. You will take too long, you will lose the deal. You need a database complete with filters adapted to how clubs operate, so you can find reports and profiles on the spot and send them immediately to clubs. All these reasons are why we created ScoutDecision. If you'd like to try a software that can make your life easier, that is the base for a successful agent career, go to: Platform for Agents

We are thrilled to announce a groundbreaking partnership between ScoutDecision and CSE Players, one of Brazil's leading women's football agencies! This collaboration marks a significant step forward in the intersection of technology and women's football, as we join forces to revolutionize player management and monitoring processes. As part of this partnership, CSE Players will leverage ScoutDecision's cutting-edge platform as their primary database for monitored athletes, generating insightful reports, dynamic dashboards, and streamlining the management of athletes in their portfolio. We extend a special thanks to André Alves for his collaboration on this exciting journey! Together, we are committed to empowering women in football and driving innovation within the sport. Stay tuned for more updates as we embark on this thrilling journey together!

England: after securing the 4th place in the last edition of the World Cup, England has serious hopes of improving that result. After being the indisputable best team from group B and with one of the best goal averages until now, they will now try to beat Senegal in the first encounter between the two teams. Senegal: they arrived in fine form at this competition after winning the Africa Cup of Nations last year. Even without their main star, Sadio Mané, Senegal secured a spot in the next round after beating Equador in a very tight match and will try to equal their best performance ever of 2002. Analysis in Charts Here are some figures regarding key components of both teams' showings during the group stages. 📑