Following the footsteps of the new Messi

The objectives of each club in proposing a scouting process propose substantial differences behind similar searches. Everyone is looking for the best talent, but the spaces of action and the weighted characteristics are particular to each organization.

    The following phrase, spoken by Fabio Radaelli, Scouting Director of Club Atlético River Plate, defines the ultimate goal of scouting as an activity: "We are all looking for the new Messi, even knowing that finding that talent is very difficult. But that search implies a battle, with different weapons, for each of the clubs that compete in that task."

    After conducting a series of interviews with talent detection managers from different clubs and different categories, conclusions can be drawn about the modalities of talent search in Argentine football.

    When we talk about tools for searching and recruiting players in the youth sector, we refer directly to the budgetary capacity and the availability of resources that each organization can adopt. In this aspect, intangible elements must be taken into account, such as the transcendence that the club has in the territory where it is located, and more visible elements such as the contact agenda, the possibility of accommodation for trial players, the quality of scouts, etc.

    In a club like River Plate, one of the most important in Argentina, the Scouting Department has a workgroup of 25 people who are distributed territorially within the Buenos Aires conurbation and in the interior of the country. They have predetermined the player profile they are looking for for each position and within each age range. They call it "River's DNA."

    In all positions, they look for players with technical skills. This seems obvious; however, it does not happen in most clubs, for example, in defensive positions. To do this, in addition to generating focused tests, they create regional trials with players to be evaluated and make them compete to take them to a level higher than a traditional trial. They also conduct scouting work for players aged 15 to 17 who are playing in senior teams in the interior leagues, which presupposes thorough preparation for the competition they require.

    In the case of Club Atlético Lanús, a club of smaller volume than River but of great prestige in recent years in promoting elite players, the work is more focused on the institution's area of influence. That is to say, although they receive talent from all over the country, the vast majority of their players come from grassroots football in the Buenos Aires conurbation (youth football), especially from the Southern zone of Greater Buenos Aires.

    Lanús was a pioneer in making strategic agreements with neighborhood clubs and federations that brought together those institutions within their competencies. Thus, with F.A.D.I - Argentine Federation of Children's Sports -, the largest children's football federation in the Province of Buenos Aires, they agreed to sign a compensation for sales of each player that emerged from any of the clubs in that sports community. This generated a great predisposition to bring talented children to the club since most neighborhood entities had never received any economic recognition for training players at such early ages.

    The city of Rosario has been the cradle of a multitude of consecrated players throughout history. This gives some added ease to Newell's Old Boys and Rosario Central for the early detection of talent. But it is also true that their search expands throughout the province and also in Cordoba, both due to geographical proximity and the player profile that emerges from that area.

    Then, each club does its territorial analysis to search for talent, but most agree on the search objectives, and that's where the battle begins to impose the best conditions, both for the player and their family and for the club of origin.

    At Racing Club, for example, for many years, the famous region called "la Cuenca Lechera" was used as a base. Studies showed that, in that area, players had an appropriate profile both physically and cognitively. This substantially reduced the margin of error in their career toward professionalism, and as a result, we can mention names such as Luciano Vietto, Lautaro Martinez, Juan Musso, Brian Mansilla, and Juan Dinenno, among others. This task was carried out without neglecting the club's first recruitment engine, which was its youth football, where figures such as Rodrigo De Paul, Ricardo Centurión, Luis Fariña, Matías Zaracho, Bruno Zuculini, or Diego Milito emerged.

    The Argentine national team reflects a bit the geographical configuration of the scouting maps these days. The "Scaloneta" contained a majority of players (12) born in the Province of Buenos Aires. The rest of the players are divided between Córdoba (6), Santa Fe (5), Entre Ríos (2), CABA (2), La Pampa (1), Neuquén (1), and Tucumán (1), forming an interesting melting pot that highlights the most sought-after areas for recruitment processes in our football.

    As a conclusion, it is useful to quote a brilliantly written paragraph by Fabian D’Aloisio and Juan Stanisci in their book "Semilleros":

    "Fertile ground to continue sowing. In the Match of the Century, we saw hints of fields and neighborhood clubs. Like all the previous matches broadcast on public TV, the Final of the World Cup against France had the singularity of presenting the team formation highlighting the places of origin of each of the players of the national team: Emiliano Martínez from Mar del Plata (Buenos Aires), Nahuel Molina from Embalse (Córdoba), Cristian Romero from Córdoba Capital, Nicolás Otamendi from El Talar (Buenos Aires), Nicolás Tagliafico from Rafael Calzada (Greater Buenos Aires), Rodrigo De Paul from Sarandí (Greater Buenos Aires), Enzo Fernández from San Martin (Greater Buenos Aires), Alexis Mc Allister from Santa Rosa (La Pampa), Ángel Di María from Rosario (Santa Fe), Julián Álvarez from Calchín (Córdoba), and Leo Messi from Rosario (Santa Fe), led by Leonel Scaloni from Pujato (Santa Fe).

    Now, why would it be valuable to hear the name of the locality where each of the players is from while a journalist narrates how Argentina forms? To have memory. To know where the professional footballers who today are making a career and standing out in the most successful clubs in Europe and the World come from…"

Santos Ignacio