In modern football, teams rely on their scouts to spot talent for them all over the world.
The exercise does not come cheap because a lot of resources are needed for scouts to connect the whole world. This ends up leading to so much talent being wasted because it is not easily spotted.
Scouts have to travel a lot to watch games and even follow players they are interested in for some time. On the other hand, there is a company that wants to make it easier for scouts to spot players in order for them to play in the world’s major leagues.
A South African-based company, Goal Cast, wants to connect scouts and players with potential via the internet and it could be an ideal opportunity for local teams to market themselves and their players. “Teams and players will have their profile systems and thus making it easily accessible around the world. The only way we are going to benefit as a company is through advertising while all the information about the teams, players and even scouts will be free of charge and this is the ideal opportunity for the teams to benefit by branding themselves,” said Allan Kowa, the managing director of Goal Cast. Kowa told Sunday Standard that Premier League teams, like Township Rollers, Extension Gunners, Gaborone United (GU) and Naughty Boys, have shown great enthusiasm.
“As I am talking to you now, we are modifying the pages for Township Rollers, GU and Gunners. Naughty Boys promised to make everything themselves and will just send it to us. I am hopeful that once profiles of other teams are in, others would also, in turn, show determination and place theirs,” he said.
Since most of their information, especially about the players, would be footage based, Kowa said they are still talking to Botswana Television to have footage of certain players and teams. He said they also welcome amateur footage either by camera or cell phones.
“Amateur footages are mostly welcome because we believe they are closely looked at and one would easily spot what he is looking for. For instance, one might just attend a fascinating game with many enterprising youngsters, and once cameraphone is there the information can be easily relayed to us,” he said.
Kowa also emphasised that they would like to connect aspiring and talented youngsters with already established ones so that they can share vital information. He said such information can be in the form of nutrition the football stars take and lifestyle in general to keep themselves fit.
Goalcast can be accessed at www.goalcast.com
