Before social media, players were bought mainly on talent alone. The player would do a fitness test and if he passed the test, the club would normally sign that player. Many times, their existing clubs would speak highly of the player even though they knew his life out of soccer wasn’t exactly exemplary. The new club would then buy this player only to find out he is a big drinker…but now they would be stuck with him for however long the contract was negotiated for.
Do yourself a favour and watch the “George Best” documentary on Netflix. I highly recommend it for a good time filler. Would a club in this modern era take a chance on George Best? Based on this article, I don’t think so! But it is Georgie Best! Maybe he turns his life around and recovers. I still think the answer would be no!
These days, buying a player is a whole new ball game. A lot of emphasis is placed on the players social media presence, what he says on social media, and many other factors. As you will read in the article, clubs hire companies to investigate player habits, body language, and place a huge factor on social media history.
I always inform the players I coach to watch out what they put on social media and most don’t really believe me. Well, I will forward this article to all of them so they can see the reality of what clubs do and what they look for when wanting to sign a player. The far-reaching lengths that clubs go to find dirt on players is unbelievable, but these days with social media, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to uncover this dirt quite easily.
Moral of the story: if you are a young player wanting to make it as a professional, my advice to you is get off social media and go to the field and train, train, and train some more. Let your talent do the talking and not your social media drunken escapades. #notfunny
This story is from the Wednesday, October 11, 2017 newsletter.
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