It is not just the big football clubs that are doing all they can to snatch up young future prospects. If anything, the battle between sportswear brands, and particularly market leaders Adidas and Nike, to put their STAMP ON THE NEXT GENERATION is even more intense.
Neale McDermott’s record as a football talent spotter is better than most.Long before Dele Alli (in pic) was Dele Alli, when he was just a 16-year-old of raw promise at the lower-tier team Milton Keynes Dons, rather than Tottenham’s standard-bearer and England’s nascent superstar, he was on McDermott’s radar.
Demarai Gray was another. McDermott knew about him when he was taking his first tentative steps as a 17-year-old with Birmingham City, a couple of years before he made the great leap into the Premier League with Leicester City.
IN THE FRENZIED, highly competitive world of youth scouting, where everyone is seeking a fast track to the next big thing, such successes bestow considerable cachet. McDermott’s seal of approval cannot make or break a player’s career, by any means, but it carries more than a little weight.
His phone rings frequently with inquiries from clubs, to solicit his view on this prospect or that, to ask if there is anyone he is particularly excited about. In the eyes of many, his scouting network is more sophisticated and more comprehensive than those of even the Premier League’s giants. In part that is because McDermott is not employed by a single club, but by a brand: Adidas.
THE PREMIUM ON PROMISE has never been higher in English football. Last week, it emerged that Manchester City had paid the League One club Southend United GBP175,000 (about $215,000) to sign Finley Burns, a 13-year-old defender. It was the highest fee ever paid for a player that age. Last year, City paid Watford a fee that could rise as high as GBP 500,000 ($615,000) for the 15year-old forward Jadon Sancho.
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Denne historien er fra February 4, 2017-utgaven av Sportstar.
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