This is a question that varies from club to club. For instance, the size of the scouting network is dependent on the size of the club. A club like Manchester United will have a club scout system that covers much of the world, whereas a semi-pro club will have only one or two local scouts looking out for local talent.
Most clubs will have some full-time scouts, and some part time scouts. A proportion of these scouts will be looking to find the best young local players. A lot of them work with friends who can spot young promising footballers. They are not official scouts themselves but can bring promising young players to the attention of a local pro club scout.
The scouts will go and look at the player, and if he thinks he is good enough the player might get scouted, and called up to the academy for an official trial. Don’t forget all the best recruitment departments have a huge range of contacts within the game. The club will be able to tap into these contacts, and ask them about promising young players. The contacts will try and recommend the right player to the right football club.
All these recruitment departments are getting bigger, because finding these talented young players is becoming increasingly competitive. The pressure on academies to find these promising young players are getting greater every year. It is far more competitive now than it was even five years ago. Recruitment departments are now much more highly valued by clubs because of their ability to get the best young players into their football club. Some clubs make millions of pounds every year by selling on very talented young footballers who they think are not quite good enough for that particular elite club.
Once they are in the academy system, they get absolutely top-class coaching, and it is not uncommon for a core group of players in a particular age group to stay together in a club through the academy system from the age of nine or ten all the way through to scholarship age, which is fifteen or sixteen. In some exceptional cases, this extends into the late teens, the most dramatic example of this being the Manchester United “Class of ‘92”,
So Here at UK Football Academy Finder we hope that helps explain how a pro club academy scouting system works in the UK.