There’s a revolution taking place in youth scouting and it’s altering soccer. “Right this moment, on the platform, there are 250,000 gamers,” Benjamin Balkin tells Sky Sports activities. “Final yr, there was 130,000. Subsequent yr, there shall be half one million.”
Balkin is the co-founder of Eyeball, a platform you won’t have heard of however one which has almost definitely develop into central to how the membership you assist recruits younger gamers. It’s already being utilized by the vast majority of them in Europe’s high 5 main leagues.
The promote is straightforward. The platform offers video clips with 1000’s of information factors for every participant. However this isn’t the Premier League. These are children enjoying in novice soccer in France, in academies in Africa and, very quickly, all throughout South America.
That is how soccer’s subsequent celebrity shall be unearthed. And so they may very well be wherever. Was there as soon as a genius from Mali by no means found? “100 per cent, there was,” says Oliver Dürr Dehnhardt, Balkin’s colleague. “The truth is, there have been most likely 10.”
He provides: “I’m not claiming Eyeball has the answer to seek out all 10. They nonetheless must play for a membership we cowl. However the path to discovering all 10 is clearer now. All people is aware of the potential of Africa however no one knew the right way to unlock it. Now you’ll be able to, it is going to simply spiral.”
5 years in the past, Eyeball was simply an thought. Like the very best of them, it stemmed from the necessity to resolve an issue. Balkin, born in France to Danish mother and father, was a one-time Monaco prospect who discovered himself making an attempt to determine younger French expertise for golf equipment overseas.
“All the pieces began from private expertise. We had a community of golf equipment fascinated with discovering 14- to 16-year-olds in France. That was our area of interest. However it was a jungle on the market. You have been closely counting on brokers. Our downside was an absence of video in youth soccer.”
They knew it made sense to base themselves within the massive cities, Paris and Marseille, nevertheless it was simply an informed guess which matches to observe. A contact would name a few prospect in Brittany. One other in Lyon. “In every single place besides the place it was sensible to be.”
He explains: “What we have been doing was making an attempt to be fortunate mainly. Simply choosing a sport a bit instinctively on a Saturday afternoon. Going to observe it and hoping that the left-back you have been on the lookout for, for that English membership that was in want, was going to be on the pitch.
“What number of instances have you ever heard that it was the luck of being in the proper place on the proper time? ‘I used to be simply out watching a sport and there he was proper in entrance of me.’ However, in 2025, no soccer membership of their proper thoughts desires to construct a method primarily based round luck.”
That was the state of affairs. They have been sticking a pin in a map, looking for gamers in France. And even once they did, their studies have been lacking one thing. Golf equipment wished to see clips not mere written studies. “We determined to start out filming the video games ourselves.”
This was novice soccer. “Nothing was on TV, no rights, nothing. We simply purchased cameras, clipped up the gamers we favored.” However it labored. “The response fee from golf equipment elevated. The choice-making time acquired means shorter.” Eyeball was the reply.
The problem for Balkin and co-founder Emil Kjeldsen again in 2020 was to scale it. “The issue was that the majority golf equipment didn’t have a digicam. And in the event that they did, they have been simply utilizing it for inner teaching functions and evaluation. We tried to take away that barrier,” he says.
“By offering golf equipment with a digicam system freed from cost and the evaluation that comes with it, in alternate we have been in a position to get the group sheets and the knowledge that we required on their gamers so as to construct an precise searchable database in the long run.”
Eyeball’s search operate permits scouts to seek out detailed participant profiles on the click on of a button
Dehnhardt got here on the state of affairs from the opposite angle having labored at Ajax for 3 years as their worldwide scout, liable for Scandinavia and France but in addition exploring potential markets in Africa and past. “My focus was on rising expertise.”
Ajax have lengthy been considered probably the greatest golf equipment in Europe in terms of figuring out that expertise. “A really well-funded scouting system, excellent scouts,” agrees Dehnhardt. “However they have been engaged on the identical foundation like every other membership,” he provides.
“If an agent they belief known as on Thursday to say there was a very good participant in Prague, they’d fly there on the weekend to observe him after which say ‘no’. If there have been 10 brokers calling then they’d decide one after which go see the others on the following 9 weekends.
“With Eyeball, you watch 20 minutes and resolve whether or not to place them on the checklist. If the reside validates the video, I might ship the identify to Amsterdam the place 10 video scouts are working. Inside two days, I might have 10 impartial studies. You can also make a choice.
“At Ajax, we made Eyeball central to our technique. I noticed for myself the potential, the way it can fully change issues.
“Ten days as a substitute of 10 weeks or longer? Time is cash on this area. Only a few golf equipment on the earth have the posh of time not being an element. Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain can transfer on the final second and simply pay. Everybody else must be earlier.
“Have a look at Mathys Tel, he has barely turned 19 and is already on the second massive switch of his life. If Mathys Tel had been born two years later, then there would have been 45 video games of him earlier than his debut for Rennes. The choice can be made even earlier.”
Having recognised the chance, Dehnhardt is now working for Eyeball, primarily based of their Copenhagen workplace. “It’s actually the primary massive shift in youth scouting prior to now 30 years, to be sincere,” he insists. “That’s the reason I’m right here now. It’s a sport changer.”
Mathys Tel has had multiple massive transfer however in future he can be discovered even earlier
After all, soccer itself is altering too. Globalisation coupled with elevated monetary restrictions actively encourages golf equipment to forged the web wider – and youthful. “Rising expertise was once outlined as U23 however now it’s U19,” explains Dehnhardt.
“An increasing number of golf equipment do not likely care the place a participant comes from so long as they’re adequate. That’s already the technique of golf equipment at first-team degree however with the barrier to worldwide scouting now decreasing, golf equipment must transition increasingly.”
Balkin agrees. “If all the pieces shifts youthful, how does the scouting technique adapt to that? Knowledge has been centered on first-team soccer for the previous decade however gamers are shifting at 19 now. Possibly it will likely be 17 quickly. The golf equipment must learn about them at 14.”
Eyeball is the means by which they will try this.
Balkin talks by way of it and it’s stunningly easy, Soccer Supervisor for actual. “I can choose my information factors to make my shortlist. Let’s seek for a centre-back, this yr, European passport, nationwide group participant, this tall. It actually makes the scout’s life a lot simpler.”
Inside clicks, a teen from west Africa might be discovered and a scout in northern Europe is watching clips from a sport being performed on one other continent the place there have been no followers current. “You aren’t simply going to go to Senegal, are you? It kills the geography.”
Eyeball scouting’s sport web page exhibiting a match captured on one in every of their cameras
However it isn’t simply the large golf equipment that profit. The logistics in Africa have been simple as a result of golf equipment there have embraced it. “These academies, their complete enterprise mannequin is to promote gamers. They deal with it with a lot care. They’re unbelievable to work with.”
In England, many of the golf equipment within the Championship at the moment are on board, tailoring their use of it for each value and practicality. “You don’t want to purchase all the pieces, simply subscribe to the international locations related to your scouting division, your technique,” says Balkin.
Beneath that, Bolton Wanderers are in an attention-grabbing place within the meals chain. They movie their video games from the age of 13 up, proving video and group sheets. It helps showcase expertise to promote but in addition offers launched gamers with an opportunity of being picked up elsewhere.
“You don’t have to belief some agent you’ve got by no means heard about who wrote to you on LinkedIn with a very good video,” says Dehnhardt. “You are able to do your individual due diligence. On the similar time, on Eyeball, you’ve got the direct contact to the membership. No intermediaries.”
Having stated that, the large businesses are on Eyeball. “It is sensible,” says Balkin. “They’re part of the ecosystem with analysts of their very own. They make data-driven choices on gamers they need to symbolize, not simply on a advice from another person.”
Eyeball’s platform permits scouts to observe video games and gamers from around the globe
“There are undoubtedly transfers being made purely on Eyeball,” claims Dehnhardt. Even strikes that, on the face of it, look like examples of conventional scouting, are actually fuelled – earlier than and after – by intensive analysis that’s achieved on the Eyeball platform.
“As a normal rule, if the membership is utilizing Eyeball and the participant is on Eyeball, Eyeball performed a job within the due diligence. It’s probably that 70 to 80 per cent of the scouting studies made on younger gamers are literally made on video primarily based on Eyeball. It is so simple as that.”
Valy Konate, the Ivory Coast participant from Racing Membership Abidjan who not too long ago shone on the Toulon Match and subsequently earned an enormous transfer to Monaco, nonetheless required some background checks. “The follow-up was on Eyeball, I’ve little doubt about that.”
Valy Konate joined Monaco from Racing Membership Abidjan and Eyeball performed its half
Put merely, it’s now integral to the scouting course of. “We’ve handed the tipping level now,” says Balkin. “If you’re not utilizing Eyeball, you’re the exception. I believe there are 4 within the Premier League not utilizing it. Two in Ligue 1.” And it’s only going to develop.
“We’ve 130 accomplice academies in Africa and we are going to attain 200 to 250 by the tip of the calendar yr.” However the massive mission, one which Balkin, bashfully slightly than boastfully, admits Eyeball have already invested 9 figures in, is to increase into South America.
“Nobody desires only a Brazilian technique. They need a South American technique. So we’re placing some huge cash into mapping Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay and Ecuador. We’ve three full-time individuals on the bottom there and we’re going all in. Asia is subsequent.”
Eyeball is getting larger. In consequence, the world is getting smaller.
