SANDRO VELOSO, FOOTBALL MANAGER SCOUT
November 26, 2016 Football Manager
Football Manager came into the lives of everyone who loves football very early on. Being a simulation, it can present us with a series of challenging scenarios that demand real commitment from us. But if our biggest 'job' is simply enjoying the finished product, the one that reaches our hands or our computers, there's a long road behind it, and an even longer list of people responsible for creating (or updating) the foundation we'll be playing on. And Sandro Veloso is one of those people.
And although he's only 22, don't be fooled, he's already clocked up plenty of hours of work and plenty of adventures, with football always being the common thread through all of it. An analyst at MaisFutebol, Sandro is part of the sports team at Mundial FM/Rádio Jornal do Centro, and this year he was invited to join Football Manager's research team, taking charge of Beira-Mar and Águeda.
So, to try to demystify a few things about the game, Penálti sat down with Sandro, who opened the doors to FM 2017 for us and took us on a journey covering topics as varied as it being a cousin who got him hooked on this addiction, or the fact that Bébé's transfer wasn't actually made purely off 'YouTube' clips.
To understand where it all began, we had to get Sandro to think back to his childhood, when he was so impressed by the striking duo that helped his cousin win five Champions Leagues in a row with Sporting that he had to start playing by his own hand (or head), even if that meant going to his mother's workplace to do it. "I started playing FM (back then it was still Championship Manager) really young. I started because of a cousin I used to stay with during the holidays, and at the time he was playing CM 03/04. He'd won five Champions Leagues in a row by the time I discovered the game, and had this really funny team full of players I didn't know, and that made me want to learn more about the game. His strikers, for example, were Evandro Roncato, who later played in the Portuguese league, and the other one was a guy called Supat, with an enormous surname [Rungratsamee], and that's how I started playing FM, or CM as it was then," he began. "But to this day, the one I enjoyed most was FM 2008. I remember going to my mother's workplace just to play it, since I didn't have a computer at home yet, and I spent my whole life playing that thing."
"Football Manager's goal has always been to make the database more realistic, and that's why the scouting teams are split by country, so that live scouting can actually happen"
Beira-Mar right away. And even though Sandro admits that in the 2015 edition the game had a few 'facepalm' bugs, like the goalkeeper telling the defence to push up and then clearing the ball straight to the middle of his own defensive third, leaving it at the feet of the opposing striker, his relationship with the game has always been there, and it felt only natural to accept the challenge of joining the game's scouting team, an invitation Sandro puts down to the fact that he knows the teams he was assigned, Beira-Mar and Águeda, very well. Asked about the difficulties of this work, he admitted that "knowing the teams in question well" was half the battle, and pointed out that even if he sees a stat showing a "striker with 20 goals in 20 matches", he doesn't make any kind of assessment without watching him live. "Football Manager's goal has always been to make the database more realistic, and that's why the scouting teams are split by country, so that live scouting can actually happen," he added.
In the classic café chit-chat, people still think Portuguese clubs aren't very open to these kinds of initiatives [in Águeda's case, for instance, it was the first time anyone had ever had the 'mission' of scouting and recreating the squad in the game], but Sandro assures us the clubs made his job a lot easier, and that in Beira-Mar's case he even had a few conversations with manager José Alexandre Silva, who would "share some information about the squad and a few signings even before they were made official, though they were already at an advanced stage where only the public announcement was missing."
Another topic we had to bring up in this conversation was the fact that clubs are 'hunting' for players in FM's database, so we asked Sandro to put on the 'scout' hat of a top- or second-division club and tell us whether, during his time scouting for the game, he'd come across any player he thinks could make it to a professional league. But as he was quick to remind us, it's not easy to picture district-league players in the top flight or the second division, although in Águeda's case, who play in the Campeonato de Portugal Prio (CPP), it's no longer impossible to believe that could happen. "With Águeda, since they're in the CPP, it's a bit easier to imagine, but with Beira-Mar right now it's impossible to believe," he said, before opening up a bit more and telling us that, in Águeda's case, "I believe one of them will make it to the Segunda Liga, and I have little doubt about it, that's actually why I recreated him in the game with that in mind."
"I know of club scouts and agents looking for new players to represent who get in touch with the person in charge of FM in Portugal to ask what we think of certain players"
And while Sandro speaks confidently about this young Águeda player, he also assures us that, contrary to everything reported in the media, Bébé wasn't signed by Manchester United from Vitória de Guimarães based on mere YouTube clips. "I have my doubts about Bébé having been signed via YouTube. I believe Jorge Mendes (JM) had a lot of influence, and we know JM has already helped several clubs pull off good deals. The fact that he finds great players at low prices means those clubs end up almost owing him a debt of gratitude, in the sense that if Jorge Mendes says Bébé is worth that much money, the club will believe him, because they think this particular agent gets it right more often than others," he said. Still, Sandro has no doubt in saying that clubs and people involved in football already look at FM's database as a proper work tool, and gives us an example: "I know of club scouts and agents looking for new players to represent who get in touch with the person in charge of Football Manager in Portugal to ask what they think of certain players. If we create a player with interesting ratings, it's likely someone will reach out to the person responsible for the research to understand why the rating looks that way and whether it was done properly, before moving on to live scouting to see if they agree with us or not. But yes, clubs increasingly have to move in that direction," he concluded.
And if clubs are paying attention to this, the media have long realised there's a powerful tool here too, especially at the database level, gathering information on thousands upon thousands of players from all over the world. One of the pioneers in this field is Sky Sports, who already use the game's data to present player comparisons (image below). "That integration of FM with the media makes complete sense. What's certain is that in terms of database quality, information like weight, height, profile and positions, FM is right up there with other specialised sites." However, when asked whether something like the 'equation' seen in the film 'Moneyball' (which portrays the true story of building a team based solely on statistical data) could be applied to building a squad, Sandro says he finds it hard to fully translate that into football. "It's hard to apply what 'Moneyball' is about to football, although it can serve as a foundation. It's obvious that statistically better players have everything going for them to perform better at a club, because they've shown more consistent, proven output over time. But unlike other sports, football depends a lot on collective play, and there it's not enough to have three strikers who score 20 goals a season if there's no so-called team chemistry between them, or if the manager can't get them working towards a common goal. But I'm always curious to see whether these ideas hold up in practice and pay off," he stated.
With that question settled, it was time to move on to another equally important one: choosing which team to start your FM adventure with. Some people argue it's only fun if you start with a team that can go straight for titles, or one with a fat budget. Then there are those who say it's best to start in the lower divisions and 'work your way up', until the day you hear the Champions League anthem for the first time at your hometown club, a moment tough enough to bring a tear to even the toughest eye. And then there are those who'd rather start unemployed and wait for offers to come in. So, given how rare it is to get the chance to talk to someone who's been involved in building the game's database, there was only one question left to ask Sandro. Which team offers a guaranteed challenge in this year's edition of FM?
Recreio Desportivo de Águeda right away. "I'll have to blow my own trumpet here. Since it's not possible to play Beira-Mar in the first season, because the team isn't playable, not being in the CPP, which is the first playable league in the Portuguese database, I'd suggest people start playing with Águeda, since I believe it's an interesting challenge. It's a team good enough to fight for the top four spots in the group, alongside Anadia, Gafanha and Lusitano de Vildemoinhos. It's an interesting challenge because there are these four teams competing for two promotion play-off spots, and then that stage gets even harder, since there are teams like Leiria, Sanjoanense, Benfica de Castelo Branco…" he said.
With this Águeda tip already "in the bag", we decided to keep "pulling out information", and now brought up the famous bargain signings, where you sign far more quality than you're actually paying for. And Sandro Veloso came through for us again. "Alexandre Silva, centre-back at Alba. He's a young player with a lot of quality defensively, but also very competent technically. But if you want bargains, I'd recommend keeping a close eye on Beira-Mar, a team that reinforces itself really well and manages to land players that seem almost unbelievable for a district league side. And anyone who wants to can go and sign them for free, since players in the district leagues are free agents. All you need to do is offer a slightly higher wage."
So take advantage and take notes, because according to Sandro, there's no shortage of talent in the Aveiro district. And you know the drill, be sure to tell us which players you most enjoyed signing, or which teams you started with. We want to know everything!
