For years it had been rumoured that clubs were using Football Manager for scouting players but up until now the only club who were confirmed to be doing so was Everton. However, The Guardian have revealed today that Premier League clubs will now officially be using the Football Manager database for sourcing potential players.
Sports Interactive are to begin feeding data into an online analysis platform called Prozone Recruiter, which has information on 80,000 players around the world. Their studio director, Miles Jacobson, has said:
For years we’ve heard stories of real-life managers and scouts using our data to help with the recruitment process. From now on, it’s official…real managers around the world will be finding and comparing players using data and a search system that will be very familiar to players of Football Manager.
The folks at FM have over 1,300 scouts around the world, keeping tabs on up-and-coming talent and, as anyone who has played the game will verify, they're pretty good at spotting future world class stars.
Last year we spoke to an Irishman, Niall Redmond, who works a programmer for the game. He told a few tales of other real life stories of Football Manager's use:
Everton have a license to use the database as part of their scouting network, and we’re pretty sure many others use it unofficially. Andre Villas-Boas has talked about using the game when he was scouting players for Chelsea, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has mentioned FM in his list of reasons he got into management.
And of course, there's also the great story of Alex McLeish's son advising him to buy a young Lionel Messi when he was in charge of Rangers. What a game!
