The Art of Scouting

I have been rather quiet on the blog front over the past few weeks as I have been able to have a little vacation, visting Paris, France for 3 days, 2 days roaming the streets of Amsterdam also where I witnessed my first Ajax game. Those stories I will not post, one will have to call me and meet me for a beverage. Back to point; soccer education.

May is time when leagues are wrapping up and tournaments are happening every weekend at every age and level. I witnessed one tournament at the U-17 level, professional clubs and good amateur clubs were in attendance. Each game only lasted 25 minutes, each game had a fast pace, and every team played against 5 teams. It was like playing chess but with a speed clock and after every stop of the clock you were playing a different opponent. Different yet effective, it kept the game pace quick, also gave the trainers opportunities to try different players in different positions and most importantly gave the trainers more time educating their players off the field. What I find most interesting at these tournaments is the “art of scouting.”

In a country the size of Vancouver Island but the population of 16 million, everywhere one goes one sees faces, it very easy to fit into the blur of Dutch society.  The soccer community is very big yet very small, it is like anywhere else, if you’re in the circle your in, if you are out, you are really out. I can say Marco van Lochem is in Dutch youth soccer circle. Where ever we go, Marco stops and talks, sometimes cracks a joke, sometimes gets free coffee, sometimes talks in closed off boardroom to discuss “soccer business.” One would think that each scout would be wearing their clubs colors with pride yet that is not the case at all.

My definition of a “soccer scout” is a person who is watching others teams play in hope to find a player that could one day join their team to make them better. Everyone who is a scout dresses in there street cloths, looking like an ordinary person, I do not know the complete answer to why, but if parents are the same in Holland as they are Canada, I can sure guess…

Every game we watch, every tournament I go to, Marco points out to me, “he is the youth coach U13 FC Trente, or “that is the youth technical director of Utrecht” to me they all looked like dads or opas watching there son play soccer. One time I saw a dad talking on his cell phone, it was not a dad at all, it was a sports agent looking for players, an agent I will be having a meeting with to pick his brain. Keep you posted.

Being on the “outside” of the scouting circle and getting a glimpse of the “inside” fascinates me. I have been able to witness a little about how scouting works here in Holland and realized how important scouting really is.

Scouting is the most important aspects of professional football at a youth level other then actual training. Scouting gives the trainer something to work with. The competition to find a hidden gem is tremendous.

For a smaller club, one usually can not look at the best player as in most cases that player will go to one of the bigger clubs like Ajax, PSV, or Feyenoord.  One most look for a hidden gem, maybe one that was overlooked because that player had a growth spurt or just plays on a really bad team. Excelsior for example has 6 scouts watching local games every weekend all over Rotterdam, to see if they can improve there youth system. 

I have many thoughts on how British Columbia scouts for their BC teams and National teams, as I do not know the full entire process I will not make any bold statements on issues that I do not know the entire true; however, I do know  there are some great players out there that need and should be recognized for their talent and hard work.

 I pose this rhetorical question: 

How many times have you heard of a great player not picked for the BC or National team due to lack of scouting or lack funding by the player?

We as a collective group in Canada must nurture these talented players and do whatever it takes to keep them playing the game they love at the highest level. Due to the enormous size of our country, scouting becomes even more important. We all know Canada has some great talent; it is time to nurture these players and expose them through the art of scouting….

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 8:07 am and is filed under Blog Entries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.