To see and be seen, the importance of video footage in scouting

Every season has the same dynamics. Preparations for the new season will start in August and the new selections will be put together in February/March/April. An exciting period for many players and trainers.

Throughout the year, more and more recordings of matches and training sessions have been made in recent years. This has huge potential for the club, for the scouts, but also for the players themselves. After all, objectifying images. Still, the images are rarely used for selection procedures to date. That has a few causes. Firstly, the availability of the images is important. These are not always clearly documented. Selecting the images is important in this. Second, it is time consuming and complicated to compare players against each other. After all, every level is different and every situation is different. And the last reason is, not unimportantly, the software that is often used is complicated.

What further gives enormous potential is building a portfolio of your own images as a player and as a coach. By collecting moments of development and showing development throughout the season, scouts from other clubs get an excellent picture of a player's qualities. Especially where there is cooperation with partner clubs, player portfolios will become increasingly important. At well-organized clubs, portfolios are already available for departing players and a season can be made visible with a few presses of a button.

In the United States, it is common for stage players and even squad players to be selected based on a portfolio. The player (or his agent) compiles these and then shares them with the club or institution he/she wants to play for. This applies not only to football, but also to basketball, hockey and of course American Football.

For example, the first question will be if you want to register as a player or coach at an American college or if you want to send your portfolio. And, as so often with the United States, many customs, good and bad, eventually become commonplace in Europe!