When we reviewed the past 20+ years of research on footballer analytics (check out The collection, analysis and exploitation of footballer attributes: A systematic review) we identified a startling 1500 different player attributes being used in analyses. Unsurprisingly, they included all the usual dynamic suspects such as pass completion, interceptions, shots, tackles and the usual demographic attributes such as age, height, sprint speed, power. But where are the character attributes that the commercial world has tried to incorporate into their selection of people for over 100 years?

These are often the ones that fans and pundits speak about the most – determination, performance under pressure, motivation, tenacity, persistence, guile, relentlessness…? To be fair, there were some, but a very small proportion – less than 5%. 

AS Monaco’s Technical Director, Laurence Stewart, stepped up and made the point effectively in his 2021 video that identifies that Scouting character is the next frontier. As Laurence points out, the player recruitment process doesn’t provide the interviewing opportunities that the commercial world enjoys and yet the fit of a player to club culture and principles is a key risk factor for many clubs.

It's clearly a scary topic for established footballer recruitment teams. The nature of transfer discussions and negotiations is already a tough and stressful process without adding this dimension, but over the past two years of research and discussions with those involved I’m convinced that getting a handle on such attributes is the future. The key is how to do it with some formality and how to practically incorporate this dimension into the comprehensive analyses that club recruitment teams already have in place. 

We’re working on this now, developing our research into how such attributes can be usefully included in footballer analyses to formalise what we believe the very best coaches and club recruitment teams do naturally, maybe even subconsciously. 

Perhaps by providing club recruitment teams with some reliable tools to support their inclusion we can turn the elephant in the room into that extra competitive edge that will inevitably result from exploiting these attributes before their rivals do. Crucially, the real elephant in the room will be the integration of the highest ethical standards and this is something that university ethics departments excel at. 

By Dr Ed Wakelam

Keywords: Analytics, AI, SportsTech