Can you become a professional football recruiter using Twitter?

• Every Thursday, in its “off-field” section,

  20 Minutes

  explores new spaces for expressing sport, unexpected, unusual, clever or in full swing.

• As the summer transfer window opens on Friday in France, we are dedicated to these few football enthusiasts in France, who are delivering amazing

  scouting

  work .

• While some are approaching a professional opportunity, the world of pro football remains relatively cautious about these “atypical profiles”.

Have you ever considered one day shortening your nights to follow, via an improbable streaming, the Central Asian U16 championships, Uruguay, Venezuela, or even the MLS Next Pro?

Welcome to the daily life of Mickaël Marques, alias Mycki ElScout on Twitter.

“I try to follow everything that is happening around the world, without staying in the

circuit of the five major European championships, slips this 29-year-old dingo, ready to investigate more than a hundred matches each month. .

From my adolescence with

then

, I spent hours wanting to flush out hidden nuggets.

So why not transcribe this passion into reality, and not via video game algorithms?

»

Since 2018, this former financial engineering student, based in the Paris region, has been multiplying analyzes and transcriptions of more than 4,000 players around the world on his own database.

He presents some of his work on Twitter, where he has more than 23,000 subscribers, describing players under the age of 23 whom he considers promising, and whom obviously no one knows (yet) or almost.

His profile as a recruiter 2.0 earned him a few hits noticed on the Internet, such as when he pushed for his favorite club, Olympique Lyonnais, to recruit a certain Bruno Guimaraes.

Brazilian phenom Endrick Felipe spotted as young as 13

We are then in April 2019, and the name of the Brazilian midfielder will not appear in the press until nine months later, just before Juninho signs his compatriot in Lyon, with the success we know today.

Similarly, Mickaël Marques praised in November 2019 the qualities of another Brazilian, aged 13.

This is Endrick Felipe, whom all of Europe has been tearing up for a few months, and who should join Real Madrid.

Despite this recognized flair for four years, he has not yet been able to taste his ambition to join the recruitment unit of a professional club.

“I did not claim to immediately integrate a professional structure, he says.

I am told to persevere and I sacrifice a lot of my personal life, without having any real return on investment until then.

My work is followed, but it has not yet materialized in employment, even if I work with an agent on the youth market in France.

»

Attackers targeted in "second-class championships"

At 21, Téo Decker, better known under the pseudonym of Glophar (34,000 subscribers) on Twitter, comes out of his side of a season as video analyst and recruiting assistant for the club of Versailles, winner of his hen of National 2 and a half - Finalist of the Coupe de France.

Ex-goalkeeper up to level N3 in Bourgoin-Jallieu, this student in Master 1 sport business in Aix-en-Provence became known on social networks from March 2020, during the first confinement.

"I was bored at home so I started creating five Twitter accounts, including Glophar," he explains.

In particular, I proposed a list of low-cost attackers, in second-tier leagues, who I think could help OM.

For example, I mentioned Mohamed Bayo, during his loan to Dunkirk (National), before he revealed himself in Ligue 2 then in Ligue 1 with Clermont.

»

"People want tips for their game of 'Football Manager'"

Gradually, this OM supporter "discovered behind the scenes" by working with a recruiter and a foreign club, alongside his studies.

Also author of video compilations for the official accounts of Ligue 1, he quickly knew how to create “professional recognition”.

“It proves that French football is getting younger and is trying to reach the different communities of social networks, as we can see with the LFP.

“Via Twitter, he was therefore able to meet Michaël Michée, head of recruitment at Versailles, and get his career off the ground in this extremely competitive environment that is

.

It is with great pride that I announce my collaboration with @FCVersailles78 until the end of the season as a video / data analyst and scouting assistant.

I am happy to join this ambitious club and I hope to be able to sign up for this long-term project pic.twitter.com/IdjAKTcqcN

— Teo Decker (@TeoDecker_) February 14, 2022

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As for Téo Decker, Kevin Nieto (27) had the click during the Covid-19, when his job in the restaurant found himself on partial unemployment.

"People always want to know who will be the nuggets of tomorrow, and thus have tips for their part of

", smiles this supporter of Nîmes Olympique living in Paris, who watches around twenty matches each week, mainly in L1, L2 and MLS.

Four potential transfers anticipated… without any info!

This user of the InStat and Wyscout scouting platforms, who worked on a tactics program launched by Free last season, also chose to "sow seeds" on Twitter (more than 27,000 subscribers on his Fleck Scout account), by providing recruitment leads for certain French clubs.

All this taking into account their sporting and economic constraints.

🔎 Scouting: What if each Ligue 1 club had to sign an MLS player during the next summer transfer window?

I propose one name per club, explaining why it meets a need or the context of the team mentioned.

pic.twitter.com/kx3uqA4hz8

— Kevin Nieto (@Fleck_Scout) April 21, 2022

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Before the official opening of the summer transfer window on Friday in France, he recently thought on his account of seeing Théo Sainte-Luce (Nîmes) in Montpellier, Adam Buksa (New England Revolution in MLS) in Lens, Yoann Barbet (Queens Park Rangers ) in Bordeaux and Faitout Maouassa (Cercle Bruges) in Lille.

The first two have signed well at MHSC and RC Lens, and the next two could do the same in the coming weeks, in the clubs that Kevin Nieto had targeted.

“I dissociate myself from the insiders because I have no information.

I find it gratifying to see that my work is realistic, even if it is inevitably frustrating to deliver this type of opinion in your corner, on Twitter, and not in job interviews.

»

One hundred hours of theory and practice via Formations Football

These four recommendations linked together with relevance have not gone unnoticed by everyone.

“The guy literally made a

, enthuses Enzo Djebali, former recruiter for Red Star (National and L2) and Stade de Reims (L1).

Of Kevin Nieto, there are perhaps hundreds in France who work outside of football and who watch obscure matches by putting their money aside to pay for a Wyscout account.

»

🔎 What is a collective match report?

How to make such a report?

What information should be included?

✅ Football Training offers you an exclusive online conference with @EnzoDjebali!

Our educational director analyzes Ajax-PSV (5-0) of 21/10/2021.

pic.twitter.com/CYVjYHoUcD

— Football Training (@formafootball) May 25, 2022

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This is why he decided to launch Formations Football, with the magazine

.

Namely training courses costing 1,390 euros, entirely in e-learning, and which can fall within the framework of the CPF.

The goal: to bring in one hundred hours of theory and one hundred hours of practice the skills to become a recruiter or video analyst.

Enzo Djebaili had to "go through the window"

Because long before our three Twittos, Enzo Djebali (31) also believes that he had to "go through the window" to establish himself as a recruiter for a French professional club.

This former regional-level goalkeeper tipped a destiny into entrepreneurship by being spotted by the Classico Sports agency, thanks to a thesis on the questions that must be asked when faced with statistics in football.

An "atypical profile" shared by JC Abeddou (30), who after working in real estate and social services, "went on an adventure" to South America to try to make a living from his passion for football by creating a network.

"Intermediate" and "business carrier", as during the transfer of Eduardo Salvio from Atlético de Madrid to Benfica, he became a scout in South America for Benfica from 2016 to 2018.

“It is important to have been a professional player to be a recruiter”

Now an adviser to young players in the PACA region, he gives his opinion on the evolution of accessibility to this job of

in France: "I don't think that a club relies on social networks to take on a recruiter , unless there is a recommendation.

On the other hand, a video analyst is much more likely to get spotted on Twitter with relevant player compilations after a game.

Even if French football is becoming a little less closed, it is rare for someone to answer you in this environment when you are not known”.

This premise, which seems to oppose ex-pro footballers and these self-taught, almost "UFOs", was illustrated in March by OL recruitment director Bruno Cheyrou, a guest on the set of the program

: " I think it's important to have experienced high-level football and to have been a professional player to be a recruiter.

🚨 Mercato file: Strategy and recruitment - Olympique Lyonnais

As before each summer transfer window, I offer you my analysis of the Lyon situation as well as the sketches of the transfer window from my point of view by presenting different profiles (+ videos). https://t .co/FQVSVQnBke

— Mycki_ElScout (@MyckiMFootball) June 2, 2022

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"Pro football does not monopolize the truth"

Former full-back in 211 matches in Ligue 1, then recruiter at FC Nantes from 2019 to 2020, Jean-Marc Chanelet comments on these remarks: “It is clear that in France, we give more credit to a former pro player and his network. , but pro football does not monopolize the truth.

Personally, I am very open and I know that certain recruitment cells rely on interesting decipherings made by these enthusiasts outside the professional world”.

Enzo Djebali, who encourages all these young enthusiasts to “pass education diplomas”, to show that they are in contact with the field, continues.

“Football is changing, when we see that five years ago, it was the assistant coach who did the video analyzes with a tool he barely mastered.

For a long time, I was told again: "Do you really think that a geek guy like you, not thirty and with regional football experience, can join a Ligue 1 club?".

»

Mycki ElScout, Fleck Scout and Glophar would like to follow in the footsteps of the former Reims recruiter.

“I was offered collaborations in clubs, but these would have been almost voluntary, points out Kevin Nieto.

When you come out of nowhere, it's difficult to gain the trust of professional football leaders.

»

From the winning tip Ibrahima Koné to an interview with Juninho

An observation observed by Mickaël Marques: “This is the hardest part: gaining credibility in the eyes of professionals.

We have to show that we don't sell dreams in front of a screen, and prove our added value in discussions, well beyond the stats that anyone can find on the Internet.

My address book is growing, but it's always a question of contacts and timing”.

It is not for lack in his case to have given a funny tip, "a low cost Lukaku", during the last winter transfer window, to Baptiste Drouet, recruiter at FC Lorient, who did not yet know this player.

Our off-road file

Because who on this planet, apart from Mycki ElScout, had spotted Ibrahima Koné, then striker of the Norwegian club Sarpsborg 08?

Les Merlus do not regret the 4 M€ spent, since his 5 goals in 2022 have helped keep them in the top flight.

When you get an interview with his “childhood idol”, Juninho

, three months before his departure as OL sporting director, there is reason to keep hope, right?

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