How to Scout: The Book I Wish I Had When I Started
By Alessandro Soli
At AFCAS, we’re passionate about helping coaches and scouts continually develop their knowledge. While our Scout Education Hub is designed to share practical insights from our own experiences in professional football, we’re also proud to highlight outstanding resources produced by respected colleagues within the game.
One such resource comes from Alessandro Soli, a good friend of AFCAS and a former attendee of our Interactive Football Scouting Workshops.
Alessandro has spent more than 15 years working in professional football across Europe, Africa, Asia and North America, holding scouting and recruitment roles with clubs including TSG Hoffenheim, AEK Athens, Fortuna Düsseldorf, Piacenza Calcio and St. Louis City SC, as well as working with the national teams of Gambia, Mali, the Philippines and Guam.
His new book, How to Scout – A Complete Guide to Modern Football Talent Identification, draws upon that extensive experience to provide a practical guide for aspiring and experienced football scouts alike.
Whether you’re beginning your journey into scouting or looking to refine your player assessment methodology, this book offers valuable insight into the modern recruitment process from someone who has worked across multiple football cultures and recruitment environments.
We’re delighted to feature Alessandro’s work on the AFCAS Scout Education Hub and congratulate him on producing what we believe will become a valuable resource for football scouts around the world.
How to Scout: The Book I Wish I Had When I Started
By Alessandro Soli
When I began my career as a football scout, I had passion, curiosity, and a notepad. What I didn’t have was a roadmap.
Nobody handed me a framework for evaluating a player. Nobody explained how to read movement off the ball, how to separate a bad performance from a bad player, or how to write a scouting report that actually meant something to a sporting director. I learned by doing — match after match, country after country, mistake after mistake.
Fifteen years later, after working across four continents with clubs like TSG Hoffenheim, AEK Athens, Fortuna Düsseldorf, Piacenza Calcio and St. Louis City SC, and with national teams including Gambia, Mali, the Philippines and Guam, I decided it was time to write that roadmap.
The result is How to Scout — A Complete Guide to Modern Football Talent Identification.
Why I Wrote This Book
The scouting profession has changed dramatically. Data is everywhere. Video is accessible to anyone. The market is more competitive, faster, and more global than ever before.
And yet, the fundamentals — the ability to watch a player with educated eyes, to understand context, to assess potential rather than just performance — are still what separates a good scout from an exceptional one.
I’ve sat in stadiums in West Africa watching a player who would go on to a major European league. I’ve been in MLS stadiums helping build a squad from scratch for a brand new club. I’ve scouted in Asia, in Scandinavia, in the Mediterranean. Every market taught me something different. Every experience added a layer to how I see the game.
This book is the sum of all of that.
What’s Inside
How to Scout is not a theoretical exercise. It’s a practical, operational manual — the kind of resource that should sit on the desk of anyone working in modern talent identification.
Inside you’ll find:
→ Observation criteria for the modern footballer How to evaluate a player beyond the obvious. What to look for when the ball is not at their feet. How to assess decision-making, positioning, and footballing intelligence in real time.
→ How to build a professional scouting report The structure, the language, and the logic behind a report that is actually useful — for sporting directors, coaches, and recruitment departments.
→ Technical, tactical and physical assessment frameworks A systematic approach to evaluating players across all positions and profiles, with criteria adapted to the demands of modern football.
→ How to identify potential beyond performance One of the most important — and most underestimated — skills in scouting. How to see what a player could become, not just what they are today.
→ How to operate effectively in international markets, Scouting in Europe is different from scouting in Africa, Asia, or the Americas. This section covers the practical realities of working across different football cultures, leagues, and environments.
Who This Book Is For
Whether you are a scout just starting out, an experienced recruitment professional looking to sharpen your methodology, a sporting director who wants to understand how the scouting process really works, or a coach who wants to develop a more structured eye for talent — this book was written for you.
It is designed to be read, used, and returned to. Not a one-time read, but a reference point.
A Book Built on Real Experience
In 2023, I was part of the staff that helped St. Louis City SC win the Western Conference in their historic inaugural MLS season. That same year, Gambia — a country I had worked with for years — qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in their history, reaching the quarter-finals.
In 2025, I was involved with Mali’s national team at the Africa Cup of Nations. In 2026, I was invited to present my scouting methodology at the FIGC Scouting Course in Coverciano — the main training institution of Italian football.
None of these experiences happened by accident. They were the result of a method, a process, and a philosophy of observation that I have refined over thousands of hours of live scouting on multiple continents.
That method is what this book is about.
Available Now in 5 Languages
How to Scout is now available on Amazon in five languages, so that scouts, coaches, and football professionals around the world can access it in their own language:
🇬🇧 English → amazon.com/dp/B0H5CR6DVY
🇮🇹 Italiano → amazon.it/dp/B0H6NFZ2LS
🇫🇷 Français → amazon.fr/dp/B0H6GKN5W2
🇧🇷 Português → amazon.com.br/dp/B0H6K4GHLP
🇪🇸 Español → amazon.es/dp/B0H6PMX46D
Final Thought
Scouting is not just about watching football. It’s about understanding people, contexts, and potential. It’s about asking the right questions before you even step inside a stadium.
If football is your business, this book is your manual.
I hope it becomes the resource I never had.
— Alessandro Soli
Alessandro Soli is an Italian football scout and talent identification specialist with over 15 years of experience in professional football across Europe, Africa, Asia and North America. He has worked with clubs including TSG Hoffenheim, AEK Athens, Fortuna Düsseldorf and St. Louis City SC, and with national teams including Gambia, Mali, the Philippines and Guam.
FURTHER READING –
📖 – AFCAS SCOUT EDUCATION HUB
📖 Continue Reading – Football Scouting: A Beginner’s Guide to Football Scouting
📖 Continue Reading – Football Scouting Courses: What should you expect from a Scout Education Provider
📖 Continue Reading – Football Scouting: How to Target the Right Club and Making the Perfect First Impression
📖 Continue Reading – The Content of Scouting: Part 1 – Professional Football Scouting: Why Context is Everything When Assessing Players
📖 Continue Reading – The Content of Scouting: Part 2 – Watch the Player Under Different Spotlights… And in Daylight
📖 Continue Reading – The Content of Scouting: Part 3 – Home, Away, and Hostile
📖 Continue Reading – The Content of Scouting: Part 4 – Assessing Players Against Different Levels of Opposition
📖 Continue Reading – The Content of Scouting: Part 5 –
📘 You’ve Read The Theory…
🎓 Now Learn The Practical Skills.
Our 4-Course Football Scouting Bundle teaches you how professional scouts analyse, assess and report on players through practical interactive learning.
✅ 300+ Interactive Tasks
✅ 30+ Player assessment tasks
✅ Match Analysis Exercises
✅ Professional Report Writing
✅ Learn at Your Own Pace
📦 View The Complete Bundle
Originally published by AFCAS – Association of Football Coaches and Scouts
The coaching frameworks, scouting methodologies, player assessment models and educational content contained within the AFCAS Education Hub have been developed from the practical experiences of AFCAS educators working within grassroots, academy, professional and international football.
Original AFCAS Educational Content
The educational content, coaching principles, scouting methodologies and practical frameworks published within the AFCAS Education Hub have been developed through years of professional coaching, scouting and recruitment experience.
These articles represent original AFCAS educational material and are protected by copyright. Any reproduction, adaptation or commercial use without written permission is prohibited.
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Published: 4th July 2026
Author: Ged Searson
Updated: 4th July 2026
