Some thoughts: footballscouting, mentoring and "football parents"

As a football scout and mentor, teacher and at the same time a parent, I am fortunate to experience the everyday life of youth football, with all its uplifting and sad moments, positive and harmful phenomena.

When working with young players, I try to draw attention to the things that answer the key questions for a football scout. I try to make them aware, of course, in a simple, easy-to-understand form, of what is necessary to perform well on the pitch, whether in training or in a match, to show the best possible picture of their game.

They know that it is not enough to be fast and skillful with the ball, as that only shows a certain detail, there are several other qualities that are also very important. In this context, they also know that everyone, without exception, has strengths and weaknesses, whether they are professionals playing at the highest level or young players playing in the youth team. It was also important to make them aware that almost without exception, every player has a quality that makes them better than others, they may not be as sure-footed as other team members at the moment, but they are the ones who always close back in a disciplined manner after losing the ball, even if they have to cope with a numerical advantage alone, or they are the ones who, throughout, concentrate on the events taking place around them and always try to react well and in time, even if this is not always successful in practice... yet. However, a good decision that shows serious game intelligence is already in their heads.

But what are the segments in the youth football topic that need to be taken into account in the so-called regarding "talent identification", i.e. what information should be collected to get the big picture of a youth player?

The key questions are the following, who are we looking for, what are we looking for?

The emphasis here is on the "big picture", which, as has been mentioned above, is much more than how sure a player is on the ball, how well he dribbles or shoots, or how fast he is.

Becoming a footballer is a long process, the pursuit of development cannot actually end, as it is essential for professional players as well, which is why it requires perseverance, intelligence, concentration, discipline, and a serious challenge.

A factor that significantly influences character is how the player has been socialized, in what environment he lives his everyday life, and what forms of behavior and norms he brings with him to the community.

This is not about the financial circumstances a child comes from, although unfortunately this also in many cases fundamentally reduces their opportunities and determines the path they take, but rather what kind of parental or group model they follow.

/A child with excellent character can emerge from deep poverty, and someone from affluence can become a toxic personality for a community, there is no direct connection between the two./

Over the decades, observing youth football (or I could say children in general), a very serious, clearly negative trend has emerged in relation to their behavior and concentration ability, and this has been observed for years and unfortunately shows a continuously deteriorating picture. On the one hand, this can be explained by the constantly accelerating rhythm of life, the unprocessable amount of stimuli and information that is being poured on them, and on the other hand, children are increasingly acquiring aggressive, verbally and physically abusive behavior patterns, which they bring with them to their communities, including youth football.

There, the young player destroys the possibility of his own, appropriate pace of development, and in this the parent has eternal "merits" if he acts as a catalyst, a partner. What he suspects to be the exclusive, single quality-defining characteristic that elevates his child far above the average is only a slice of the whole picture and thus leads the child completely astray, into a dead end, in terms of what is expected, what is "good" and what is "bad", who is a "good footballer" and, in fact, where his place in the community is.

This can be observed every weekend in the stands, both as an eyewitness and as an earwitness.

Parents who think they see Messi, Ronaldo, Szoboszlai in their children humiliate each other's children, give summary opinions, and often curse them in an unqualified manner. The child then brings this with him to his own environment, to the team, in the false consciousness that he is worth more than any of his teammates. This can be stated without any exaggeration as a crime committed against the child, which will have a definitive destructive effect in the long run. It ruins the possibility of turning him, who is currently a "potential" with good skills, into a "real" and ready-made footballer with sufficient guidance, upbringing, and teaching.

The harmful effect of this type of parenting approach will then appear when the child who is ACTUALLY (this must be emphasized in any case) moving forward would have to take the next step in terms of development, possibly made more difficult by a change in environment. However, there he will most likely fail precisely because of his inappropriate character and learned behaviors, since there will be 5-6-8 other children with similar characteristics and good abilities, of whom there will be even more who are winning, tolerant, disciplined, able to work concentratedly, more intelligent, team-player type competitors.

Such an experience of failure cannot be in anyone's interest.

Let's look at some examples of the much-mentioned "overall picture" to see what all comes into play:

1. ball mobility, ball skills, technical skills,

2. pace

/These are immediately obvious qualities, their exclusive consideration is perfect for painting a quick, prejudiced, false picture of someone/

3. frustration tolerance, let's see, for example, if after losing the ball he stops and blames his teammates, or if he immediately gives up and starts to cry, throws a tantrum, commits a foul, or if he immediately tries to get the ball back. The question for me is, which player can the coach win with, even from a beaten position, is he suitable for this, does he have the mental constitution to withstand this kind of pressure? Can he also lose with dignity?

4. how does he react to a mistake (an eternal topic when talking to children is that there are 2 types of players, those who have made a mistake and those who will make a mistake, and the level doesn't matter, it happens everywhere, from the local Hungarian Bozsik tournament to the Premier League.) , does he try to correct it immediately, can he react immediately, or does it affect him to such a level that he is almost not on the field for minutes after he has made it?

5. what also matters to the player observer is whether the player understands what is asked of him, is he intelligent enough, can he implement it to the best of his ability, or no matter how good he is with the ball, does he make the same mistake in positioning 3th 4th times, despite the loud coach's instructions. After all, that is a tendency, there may also be cognitive problems there.

6. How does the player behave with his teammates, coaches, opponents, referee? Does he show respect, is it sportsmanlike?

7. Does he help his teammates, does he direct them, does he communicate, if so, how?

8. Is the player a rule-follower, is he disciplined, does he choose the easier way to the task to be performed, does he try his best to complete a task with his weaker leg in training and does what is asked of him with honor, does he constantly work to his limits, or does he cheat on the task if the coach turns away? If the former, then it shows that he is the character with whom serious development can be achieved by working together for a long time, which can make him a professional player over time, as his currently more advanced, technically better, but weaker character-wise partner, who will almost certainly get stuck in development because of this.

Here are some key questions that are all important in order to get the overall picture on which to base our opinion about someone. All this is a huge amount of information that needs to be processed and as you can see goes far beyond, e.g. on the ability to execute Zidane's iconic roulette turn, or (current) lack thereof.