‘We’ve found players everywhere’ – the rise of international football scouting
Geer, working remotely in Scotland, and McRae in New Zealand initiated conversations between players and federations that have led to several senior international breakthroughs.
Goole’s experience includes working as a coach, scout and video analyst, but it was a volunteer role with the Samoa Football Federation, helping find players for the country of just 200,000, that sparked his current career.
“We are working hard to grow this program and help as many countries as possible,” Geer said.
“We have found over 350 players in Samoa from 2021 to 2023. We have found qualified players in Manchester City’s youth academy and they come from Spain, Qatar, China, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia.
“You won’t believe where they are.”
Goole estimates that of the players identified as eligible to represent Samoa, around 60 players across all age groups in both men’s and women’s football have made their debuts so far.
Working with the Cook Islands, which has a population of just 10,000, they identified 50 players and facilitated 10 debuts in just one year.
Samoa coach Ibrom, who led his country to back-to-back World Cup qualifying wins for the first time last year, said: “When Alastair contacted me in 2021 we started a conversation about what strategies we could put in place in Samoa dialogue to achieve this goal.” Enhance player recognition.
“Once they’ve been identified, Alastair and Lars can facilitate conversations, or it can be as simple as a cold call – just this week I had a message from a potential player in the US.
“We’ve had great success with that. Now every country is trying to do that in order to compete at a high level on the international stage. It’s really had a positive impact on the Samoa FA.”
