What can I do alongside my football scouting career?

 

If you’re already involved in football through scouting, then chances are you’ve got a lot of the skills needed to succeed in other areas of the game. So why restrict what you do to watching football, looking at players, identifying talents, creating player pathways and filing reports on oppositions? How can you go full-time in football?

Here are some other roles within football that you could take on in addition to your duties as a football scout – because who doesn’t want to devote more of their lives to the beautiful game?

Performance analyst

Whilst your scouting role involves watching and judging the talents of players and oppositions, a performance analyst goes much deeper in terms of what they look at with the focus on breaking down every single play from a game involving either the club you are employed by or that of an upcoming opponent.

This could be for the purpose of showing an individual player what they did or didn’t do correctly in their last game. It might be to help them deal with the threat offered by the opponent they’ll be in direct opposition against in the next game.

The coaching staff may wish to analyse set pieces. They might want to know if there is a weakness they can exploit, such as a defender who struggles under high balls or a midfielder who is often ponderous in possession and could thus be pressed into a mistake.

Performance analysts can play a huge role in not only preparing a team for what is to come, but also helping make a difference to their chances of victory. The technology used isn’t that much different to that of a scout either, with tools such as Scout7, STATS and data complied by Opta being the programmes of choice.

This area of the game is growing at a fast pace as more and more clubs are replicating the Performance Analysts departments seen in the Premier League. There are also an increasing amount of online and University courses to help you retrain.

Youth coach

If you are already working as a scout, then you’ll know the attributes that young players need to succeed in the game – after all, you are looking for them on a frequent basis. That makes you perfectly equipped to branch into youth coaching.

Not only will you be teaching youngsters the basics of football, but your knowledge and enthusiasm for the sport has the potential to transform their lives and prospects of making it as a semi-pro or professional. In addition to finding the best talent in your scouting role, you’ll also be creating the best talent at the same tie through coaching.

To become a youth coach, you’ll need to gain the necessary qualifications and clearances but seeing as you are already involved in football, that shouldn’t be a problem. You may even already hold them.

Becoming a youth coach is the first step on a coaching path that could lead you to take on duties as an academy coach at a professional club, and the sky really is the limit from there.

Run your own football coaching business

If you want to coach young people and create your own legacy through it as your own boss, then you could combine your football scouting career with running your own football coaching business. You’ll be building your own football empire, creating pathways for players, improving your community and scouting from players on your doorstep!

Running your own coaching business is the perfect job that can go hand-in-hand with your duties as a scout.

With your own weekly sessions coaching from 200 to 600 players, you’ll be gaining access to a whole host of young players, some of whom might possess the talents to progress to an academy and who you could therefore recommend.

If you think that running a football coaching business alongside your career as scout is the right option for you, download a brochure to take a look at the We Make Footballers franchise opportunity. Many of our existing franchisees run their business along their scouting career and have found it to be the perfect fit!