ECA Member Clubs meet today in Monaco for the fifth session in the ECA Youth Football Knowledge Exchange programme, where participants will focus on youth football scouting strategy, a key topic for youth sectors of European clubs.

ECA Member Club AS Monaco is opening its doors to both its stadium, the Stade Louis II, and to the AS Monaco Performance Center, as the host of the two-day event.

Pascal De Maesschalck, AS Monaco Director of Youth Development said:

 "We are honoured to welcome ECA Member Clubs for this workshop which will provide valuable exchanges on existing strategies for scouting and developing young talent. Training is part of AS Monaco's DNA and is a pillar. As football is constantly evolving, being able to listen, debate and exchange with other European clubs will be an additional asset to our global reflection on this topic. We thank ECA for this opportunity and welcome our European colleagues."


The workshop is attended by academy directors and club experts from across Europe, all keen to discuss the European vision of youth scouting strategy and the various processes applied to youth football scouting.

 “For a variety of reasons, such as wage and transfer price inflation, the desire to create their own identity and connect with the fans, training clubs are increasingly looking to their academies to develop the talents that will feed into their first team. This is where scouting and recruitment play a key role, in particular by implementing a strategy that will lead them to finding the best talents to join their academy.

“During this two-day workshop, ECA Member Clubs will have the opportunity to learn and exchange with their colleagues on the different practices at European level and then take away key processes they can implement in their own structures,” said Pouya Yaghoubinia, ECA Football Development Manager.


Over the course of the two days, delegates will participate in seven presentations, including from event host AS Monaco, Tottenham Hotspur, GNK Dinamo Zagreb and FC Nordsjaelland, giving them the opportunity to hear first-hand how leading European clubs have implemented their youth scouting structure and strategy.

Member clubs will also hear from UEFA on youth football goalkeeper scouting and receive a presentation from a specialist in the sports recruitment field. Finally, they will also gain a perspective from outside the football world and hear from experts from the Rafael Nadal Academy on scouting in tennis.

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