Michael Calvin

Michael Calvin spent a year immersed in the world of British football scouts. “Scouts are nowhere, and everywhere. They are rivals, but mix closely.” Calvin reveals them to be a coterie who love what they do despite the long hours away from family, too much travel, “if you ain’t wearing those tyres out, you ain’t going to find that one,” and low pay.

Technology has made an incursion into scouting and an argument discussed here is whether human scouts can be replaced by statisticians, as in “Moneyball.” Of course, the scouts say no. And they’re probably mostly right. Scouting, even at the highest level, can be not only a low-paying, but even a no-paying job. Some teams have had scouts buy their own tickets to games at which they’re scouting players.

Scouts “bear witness to the game’s central struggle, between talent and ambition. They exist on the cusp of cynicism and idealism.” Most do the job for love of the game and maybe the challenge of discovering that one player who makes it all worthwhile. But they decry the loss of the human aspect of recruiting and scouting: “Unfortunately nowadays it all comes down to money.”… (plus d'informations)