UK Football Trials' Partner Featured in National Article on Young Players
David Hobson, Founder of the Professional Football Scouts Association and UK Football Trials' exclusive partner, was featured in an article in The Guardian Newspaper recently, "What do scouts look for in young players?"
The article, which focuses on the likes of Marcus Rashford and Danny Welbeck, highlights the attributes that scouts look for in players as young as five or six years old and what it takes to spot the future stars.
David, who worked for Manchester United for 12 years, features in the article alongside the likes of Manchester United Head of Recruitment Derek Langley and ex Blackburn Rovers player David Dunn.
A snippet from the article reads: "Dave Hobson, another experienced member of the Manchester United scouting network, says players need a degree of flexibility to reach the very highest level. 'Most players will have a series of different coaches throughout their formative years at a club. At United the coaches change pretty much every year and so the young players have to prove themselves time and again, in being able to adapt to each and every one to ensure they progress.'
"So generally unloved and unnoticed, thousands of scouts work throughout the country and a few years ago Langley decided to do something to redress the balance. “I challenged the scouts themselves to set up their own representative body, after all there was the PFA for players and the LMA for managers, so why not scouts? Hobson and fellow Manchester United scout Purves Ali met this challenge when they co-founded the Professional Football Scouts Association (PFSA) in 2014."
David, a world-renowned scouting expert, regularly attends our UK Football Trials worldwide and has already identified many players for football clubs all over the UK. To be watched by a member of the PFSA at our trials in May, June or August, click on the "Upcoming Football Trials" tab at the top of the page for more information.