Football Academy Recruitment teams work full time for the club and are used to develop all scouting and recruitment related activities. These teams are also tasked with finding incredible talent before anyone else. By ensuring that the scouts recruit efficiently and don’t miss talent opportunities, the academy recruiters have a direct impact on increased performance at the football club.
However, club recruiters work very unsociable hours (such as public holidays and evenings). They also face challenging time barriers, due to the high numbers of football CV they receive each season. Filtering and finding talent can be difficult if talented players are unaware of how to get scouts attention. Top academies such as Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea are always on the lookout for top talent, as they understand that every player’s development will progress at a different rate each season. This can be down to many factors, including commitment, performance, and maturity.
Therefore, it is imperative that every young player knows how to present their football CV, how to create a highlight video and what stats to showcase to scouts. The first step in this is learning what is important to the recruiter…
3 Areas of Assessment for Football Academy Recruiters
Football club recruiters must manage and support the synergy of 3 main scouting activities. These are:- Live assessment
- Video evaluation
- Player Analytics and Assessment
Football Player Recruitment Team Responsibilities
Each recruiter will cherry-pick through a mass of information looking for stats, player styles, personality or recommendations. Therefore, it is key to know the main responsibilities of a recruiter. They are:- Presenting all potential players in a set format so that they are easy to compare and rank
- Collating all potential player information to create a thorough and complete profile of potential candidates using live assessment, video evaluation and analytics
- Filtering player information in order to best-align resources and to make sure key targets are prioritised and monitored effectively
- Assisting in the monitoring and evaluation of players via both video and live assessment, both in the UK and abroad
Characteristics of Football Academy Recruiters
It’s good to know who you need to win over. Understanding that the recruitment process is about impressive a team rather than just one scout gives you a better idea of the process. The recruitment team has expertise in:- The unique nature of football culture
- Sport Science
- Coaching
- Performance and Analysis
- Assessing both individual and team performance
- Observation, with an extensive knowledge of global footballing markets
How an Academy Recruiter Quantifies Performance
Football academy recruiters have a thorough understanding of quantifying player performance, and how best to apply and utilise statistical analysis within the scouting process. Therefore, it’s important that your football CV reflects these stats from the demonstrate your own awareness of what is important in performance to a professional club. Examples of stats important to show are:- Personal stats (Weight, height, age)
- Positions played
- Preferred foot
- Awards / Trophies won
- Number of penalties taken and scored
- Number of Yellow / Red Cards
- Number of Goals per season
- Number of Assists per season
- Evidence of contact in a professional environment
- Evidence of your commitment to playing football. For example: your training schedule off the field, nutritional awareness etc
- Personal records
- Bleep test scores
- Average Kilometres travelled per game
- Sprint time for 60m
