WatchmanPost Sports
with
Christ Umosen
What’s Scouting in Football?
Scouting, according to its literal meaning is a world youth programme that focuses on outdoor activities and social development. This group is otherwise referred to as Scout Movement.
However, scouting in football refers to a different thing entirely. Football scouting involves finding talented players to sign for a football club. An adept in this is called a scout.
A scout evaluates players’ technical dexterities, physical attributes, and attitudes.
Scouting in football is an art and science aimed at discovering the next generation of football stars.
A scout needs to identify talents by digging deeper than mere observation of games. There are some scouts who work at discovering players, while some others are employed to handle rules on potential signings. Therefore, scouts in football look beyond statistics and highlight rules to identify top talents.
Types of scouting: ???? These are Academy scout, first team scout, goalkeeping scout, head of scouting, match analyst, regional scouting and youth scouting. They could be employed by football clubs, national leagues and also internationally.
Therefore, in professional sports, scouts are experienced talent evaluators who travel extensively for the purposes of watching athletes play their chosen sports.
For a footballer to be scouted for, he ought to attend an open football academy trials where he would exhibit his talents, or he joins a specialised academy that looks for clubs for a player and bring scouts to watch him in action.
Coming down to Nigeria, to be scouted for implies playing for the national team and one could be scouted for any of the topflight clubs abroad.
Most times scouts look for the confidence of players and their ability to hold on to ball. They then analysis gathered data to complement their observations.
Scouting rules: A scout must be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
To become a football scout for a club has no specific route, but it certainly helps to have a good background and knowledge of the beautiful game either as a coach or a player.
