The talent of the scout in service of the process

The discovery of footballers, whether in the youth or professional stages, requires not only capable and trained scouts but also a process that allows for the detection of the best athlete possible for each set objective.

    Scouting is often associated with the mere activity of finding good footballers who then, either immediately or later, become prominent figures in their competitive context and subsequently become the subject of an interesting business deal.

    This view of scouting places total and sole responsibility for success or failure in player selection for a specific project on the scout's talent. It thus gives the scout's talent and qualities an omnipotence that would imply an absolute dependence on their presence for a scouting system to be successful or not.

    The scout has three fundamental aspects of knowledge absorption: innate talent, training, and experience. None of these aspects depend exclusively on the presence of an organization. Nor do they come from the need for a process as a basis for skill development. However, if these inherent or acquired skills are not aligned within an organized work system aimed at a specific objective, there will be no clear direction to leverage the scout's talents.

    With these tools, the scout may detect talent. However, the talent may not fit well into the needs and objectives of a structure. This is where the process comes in as a logical path that harnesses those resources, gathers data, and provides a specific goal that the scout can reach, using their talents, with the detection of a suitable candidate.

    Even without the presence of a structure, self-management also grows with the construction of a process. Mainly because the process stems from a clear objective, it cannot lead us to nothing. That destination we want to reach through planned steps with an established purpose provides the opportunity to determine stations, directions, and controls that lead to the best possible result, reducing the margin of error and obtaining results that can be offered to different structures as a business opportunity.

    The construction of that process requires two fundamental bases: the first is the development of clear and achievable objectives that determine the destination point. The second is a detailed diagnosis of the initial situation to understand the starting point from which, through an exclusive and flexible path over time, the expected results are achieved by optimizing available resources.

    This exclusivity of the process responds to its particular fit with the needs, resources, and objectives of its creator. Meanwhile, flexibility allows for adjusting the system to contextual changes and improvements that must be made over time. Thus, the scout's work will be perfected, absorbing new knowledge that will also enrich their future professional development.

    Even in cases of self-management, the method serves as a provider of visible material to showcase the scout's talent. It not only exposes the evaluation results based on the scout's knowledge but also reveals how that knowledge is part of a solid work methodology focused on results. Everything that a structure needs in its quest to improve its scouting process.

    In this way, the scout puts their talent at the service of the process and uses it to enhance their abilities, generating a virtuous feedback loop that brings them closer to achieving objectives. The process, beyond structural improvements, receives the new skills of an empowered scout from the methodology and experiences growth that allows for a smaller margin of error, both in human resources and in achieving set objectives.

Di Pasqua, Nicolas