“ Those who turn their back to data will lag behind.”
During his time with Sevilla, Monchi discovered future international Spanish stars such as Sergio Ramos, Jesus Navas and Jose Antonio Reyes, while also finding a number of profitable bargains in the form of Adriano, Julio Baptista, Ivan Rakitic and Seydou Keita.
The Concentric Circles Theory But how does Monchi execute his scouting strategy? One key factor is his “concentric
The Scouting Philosophy of Monchi
circles theory”.
philosophy behind setting up FC Sevilla’s sporting direction and his key theory of concentric
to be strong in a certain sector,” explained Monchi.
Sevilla Director of Football Ramón Rodríguez Verdejo, better known as “Monchi”, outlines his circles for scouting players.
“In terms of the scouting department, I’ve always had an obsession,” said Monchi. “I always thought that the more times we were able to watch a player, the easier it would’ve been to make decisions. So we worked and realized what I call the ‘concentric circles theory’. Concentric circles, from the smaller one to the bigger and then the bigger. Basically, we were building a framework that allowed us to dominate a certain range.” Applying this theory to Sevilla’s scouting department, Monchi started with a small sector of countries to cover, before expanding out further. “If there were three of us the first year, why would we cover the whole world when it was impossible? We tried
“For example, in Spain, Portugal and France to begin with. When there were five of us, we tried to add Italy, England and Belgium. We did that, growing to what we are
In 2000, after Sevilla were relegated from La Liga, Monchi was appointed Director of Football for the “Rojiblancos”. He was given two objectives by the board: develop the club’s youth system and implement a vast scouting policy inside and outside of
today, dominating around 30–35 major leagues in an exhaustive way. We always tried covering and knowing what we were able to, in order to have good knowledge. Knowledge is the basis for all scouting work.”
Spain. Monchi’s first strategic move was to professionalise the academy and focus more on player development, rather than purely on results. “When you work with younger teams, there’s always this dichotomy, this division between result and development,” said Monchi. “I’ve always been firm on this. I’ve always been very consistent in
The Secrets to Being a Successful Director Part of Monchi’s philosophy is that football is a sport, but it’s also a game, in which there’s an important component: luck. Part of his daily work is to minimize this luck component as much as possible.
showing people that the most important thing was player development. The results come later, because the more the player improves, the better the results will be.“
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Hudl Magazine
September 2021
Hudl Magazine
September 2021 35
