Making a video for a scout

“How do you make an effective football video?” The question comes up among players and parents, and the most-viewed answers on social media mostly teach editing: transitions, music, slow motion. A player agent sums it up differently in the comments of one of these videos: in a video, players do not put in their flaws. Scouts know it, and that is exactly what they try to get around.

What the scout looks for

A scout watches a video with one aim, deciding whether it is worth travelling, and is not looking to be impressed. They want to answer three questions: does the player have the level of the target category, what do they do without the ball, and how do they react when things go wrong. A goal into the top corner answers none of the three.

• Complete sequences, not just the finish: the run, the control, the choice, and what happens just after.
• The defensive work, the tracking back, the duels lost then replayed: this is often what separates two players of equal talent.
• The real position: a full-back who sends only his attacking runs raises a question rather than giving an answer.

The wide shot, not the phone that follows

A video filmed at the side of the pitch, zoomed on the player, is the most tempting and the least useful: you see the player, and not what they see. The scout needs the context: where the teammates are, where the space is, why they made that choice. A fixed wide shot, filmed from height from the stand, shows all of that. How to get it with a phone is described in filming the whole pitch with a phone.

Say who to watch

On a wide shot, twenty-two players look alike. The first second of each sequence must point out the player: a circle, an arrow or a two-second freeze frame before the action restarts. A video where the scout has to look for the player is a video they stop. The opening screen completes the identification:

• name, year of birth, main position and possible position;
• shirt number and colour in the sequences that follow;
• club, category and league level of each match shown, with its date;
• a way to make contact (the parents' for a minor).

Short, but with the full match alongside

The edit should be watchable in one go: a few minutes, the best sequences first, with no music covering the sound of the pitch. Music brings nothing to the scout, and a video without music also avoids a copyright block on sharing platforms.

And then the point that makes the difference: attach the link to a full match, uncut. It is the proof that the edit hides nothing. A scout interested in the compilation will want to see the player over time, and the full match saves them from having to ask for it.

Sending, and to whom

A link, not a file: a private link to a video platform opens anywhere, while a file of several hundred megabytes ends up in junk mail. A short message, to a named person (the category coach, the head of scouting) is worth more than ten sends to a generic address. For a minor player, the link stays unlisted: the video also shows teammates and opponents who asked for nothing, for the reasons set out in can you put your team's videos on YouTube.

Start now, not at the end of the season

Editing is the easy part; the real difficulty is having the material. When you come to prepare the video, you discover that two filmed matches are left, one of them against the light. Filming regularly, and marking the good sequences through the season, avoids going back over hours of matches in May. The method is in finding the key moments in a match video.