What makes a perfect HR director? Top-notch management, interpersonal, communication, and problem-solving skills? Yes. Highly-developed strategic thinking? Sure. Knowing the hiring process like the back of their hand? But of course.
What makes a perfect football scout or sporting director? See above.
In modern-day football, success never means splashing the cash on players with the highest possible EA FIFA ratings. Success implies finding players who would match the manager's philosophy and the club's values, who would link up with their teammates well and whose skills would contribute to the club's goals, be it winning a league, earning a promotion or avoiding relegation.
A good scout or sporting director becomes an unsung hero at their club: they rarely give interviews, you won't see them dancing with trophies but their role in pushing their clubs forward can't be overestimated.
Below, we have ranked some of the world's best professionals who would make any company better.
#1: Michael Edwards (ex-Tottenham, ex-Liverpool)
It's amazing how the architect of Liverpool's return to the game elite after the Fenway Sports Group takeover does not even have a page on Wikipedia. That sums up Edwards though: he keeps a low profile at all times working with minimum media hype and maximum efficiency.
Alisson Becker, Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, Andy Robertson and many. many more: all these players signed with Liverpool thanks to Mr Edwards' efforts.
Michael's super-strength is spotting talents at a very early stage of their development. Back in 2013, when Edwards worked at Tottenham as an analyst, the London team were to face Basel in the Europa League.
"There was a boy called Mohamed Salah playing for Basel," former Spurs boss Tim Sherwood told The Athletic. "Michael Edwards spoke for 15 minutes and showed clips to the whole team about Salah and how he was the biggest threat."
Fast forward to 2017, and Michael Edwards, already at Liverpool, makes a deal that brings the Egyptian from Roma to Merseyside. Premier League, Champions League, Club World Cup and full set of domestic cups have been added to Liverpool's trophy cabinet since Salah's arrival.
Persistence is another Michael Edwards' forte. According to Goal, he spent 12 months trying to convince the then-Roma goalkeeper Alisson Becker to join the Reds. Eventually, the Brazilian joined Jurgen Klopp's side in the summer of 2018 and has been their first-choice man between the posts ever since.
Last but not least, Edwards was particularly strong in offloading players who weren't good enough for Liverpool for insane money. The brightest example is Philippe Coutinho, who joined Barcelona from Liverpool for £130.5m, more than 10 times the fee Liverpool had signed him for!
Moreover, thanks to Edwards, Liverpool earned a total of £88.3m from sales of Jordan Ibe, Mamadou Sakho, Dominic Solanke and Christian Benteke. And if you've never heard of them, that is totally fine: none of those players came even close to being a football star.
Edwards tops our rankings not because of his talent and the deals he made but also because he did it with a limited budget: Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group have never been known as the biggest spenders in top-tier football.
Edwards left Liverpool in the summer of 2022. Together with ian Graham, Liverpool's former director of research, he has founded Ludonautics, a sports advisory business that 'helps sporting organisations improve their decision-making capabilities through access to insightful statistical analysis', as per the company's website.
#2: Juni Calafat (Real Madrid)
Ask a Real Madrid fan who is the best assist-maker at their club and the answer very well could be Juni Calafat. After all, he is the key man behind the signing of Vinicius Jr, Jude Bellingham, Joselu and Rodrygo - Madrid's biggest scorers who have produced a total of 41 goals this season!
José Antonio Calafat de Souza, the 51-year-old chief scout at Los Blancos, is the third point of the ruling triangle that includes president Florentino Perez and CEO Jose Angel Sanchez.
Born in Spain and raised in Brazil, Calafat began his journey in football as an assistant and agent of great Ronaldo Nazario during the Brazilian's stint at Los Blancos.
His knowledge of Brazil and its footballers is top-notch: besides the above-mentioned Vinicius and Rodrygo, he bolstered Madrid's defence with the signing of Eder Militao.
The arrival of Militao showed one more thing about Calafat, and that is his self-confidence (not to be confused with overconfidence). At the time, many high-profile advisors suggested Real Madrid should have signed Matthijs De Ligt from Ajax. Calafat insisted on bringing in Militao who eventually turned into a key man in Los Blancos' defence.
Calafat is not a one-trick pony though. Besides Brazil, he scouts players all over Europe and South America. Thanks to his relentless and thorough search, Madrid have signed such stars as Federico Valverde (Uruguay), Andriy Lunin (Ukraine), Brahim Diaz (Spain), Eduardo Camavinga and Aurelien Tchouameni (both France).
In Calafat's career, there have been transfers that didn't work the way they were meant to. The biggest example is Eden Hazard whose time at Santiago Bernabeu was marred with numerous injuries. However, considering Hazard's stellar display at his previous club Chelsea, that looks more like an accident than a case of wrong planning.
What's more interesting is how Hazard's transfer showed Calafat's philosophy. According to Marca, Juni travelled to London for years watching the Belgian star and eventually becoming close to him. For Calafat, the personal aspect has always meant the world.
#3: Ralf Rangnick (Austria, ex-RB Salzburg, ex-RB Leipzig)
The 65-year-old German is arguably the biggest multitasker on this list.
Proof 1: Rangnick was appointed the sporting director of Red Bull Leipzig and their sister club Red Bull Salzburg in June 2012 and remained in charge of both clubs' affairs until 2015 when he decided to focus on Leipzig. By the way, it was he who brought a certain Sadio Mane to the Austrian side from Metz.
Proof 2: Besides his recognised scouting talent, Rangnick is well-known and respected as a football coach. Before Red Bull, he had taken Schalke to second place in the 2004/05 Bundesliga and guided Hoffenheim from the 3. Liga to the top tier of German football.
At Leipzig, he played the dual role of a head coach and sporting director and was the driving force behind the German outfit's rise from the fourth tier to the Bundesliga.
Here is what Leipzig midfielder Kevin Kampl said in 2018: "I've met a lot of people in football, but I've never come across someone who is as mad about the game as Ralf Rangnick. It's just a joy to work under someone like that. He's done a fantastic job."
It's not often you hear an employee saying anything like that about a company chief but Kampl was sincere: Rangnick turned the club into a place where order and discipline were going hand-in-hand with care and mutual understanding.
Speaking to The Coaches' Voice, Rangnick said: "Players need clear rules. "But it’s not enough to tell them what they can’t do and have to do. Once you stop understanding them, their fears and aspirations, you have to stop managing.
"I see it as my duty to help them deal with all the temptations and the fake reality they’re faced with as young men making a lot of money. My job is to improve players. Players follow you if they feel that you make them better. That’s the greatest, most sincere motivation there is."
Rangnick invented the policy of the three K’s - Kapital, Konzept and Kompetenz (money, concept and competence) which defined Leipzig's transfer strategy. The club focused on bringing in young talent but they were always ready to spend big when needed.
Such footballers as Timo Werner, Naby Keita, Willi Orban, Emil Forsberg and other players aged 24 or younger arrived in Leipzig thanks to Rangnick. What they had in common was a hunger for challenges and a desire to prove themselves.
In 2019, Rangnick stepped off and passed on the reigns of government to head coach Julian Nagelsmann and sporting director Marjus Krösche.
"If we continue a good recruitment policy – getting the right players at the right time and not the wrong ones because experience has shown how important this is – then we are confident we can establish ourselves up there. The goal is to further narrow the gap to Dortmund and Bayern," he said leaving the club.
The fact that RB Leipzig remain in the Bundesliga's top four, proves his blueprint is still delivering after four years.
