Talnets democratizes talent scouting in football
Root - Talnets AG from Root in the Swiss canton of Lucerne has gone live with a website that both helps football clubs discover young talent and gives players a chance to be scouted. The sportstech startup based in Technopark Lucerne focuses on objectivity through data analysis and artificial intelligence.
Talnets recently launched its website for a new type of football scouting. With Football Talent Discovery, the sportstech startup with offices in Technopark Lucerne aims to improve and accelerate the way football talent is discovered on a global level, as well as how it is connected with clubs, academies and leagues. Scouting should be «data-based, objective, relevant and trustworthy», according to CEO Darko Stanoevski.
The data-as-a-platform offering is designed to reduce the barriers to professional scouting as well as democratize the process. «Talnets gives every young player the chance to be discovered, no matter how high they want to go,» Stanoevski adds.
Talnets is a spin-off from Sigoor AG, a consulting agency for data-driven innovation that is also based at Technopark Lucerne. The Talnets platform uses machine learning to extract relevant data from videos with match scenes and use it to create player cards. The aim is to provide small clubs in lower leagues, particularly in Africa, with high-quality and usable data about their players in a cost-efficient way.
In March 2024, the 73-time England international player and current football coach Sol Campbell became an invested partner in the startup, which does not rely on external funding. «It's not always necessarily the best players who play in the top leagues, it's those who have had the chance to be discovered and developed,» Campbell is quoted as saying. «There are so many better players out there who unfortunately never had the right opportunity.»
