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The ‘black magic’ that predicts football stars

Anna Pérez
Features correspondent
(Credit: Anna Perez)

In Madrid, a millennial-led company is using technology to change recruiting in one of the world’s most beloved games: football.

The ‘perfect’ football player doesn’t exist... but how about one who is perfect for your team’s needs? Coaches and scouts may be able to find that elusive footballer with a little ‘black magic’ – and a young founder’s algorithm.

Salvador Carmona is the co-founder of Driblab, a Madrid-based company whose proprietary technology helps identify the type of profile and skills in a player that teams are specifically searching for.

“When g a player back in the day, teams made their decisions based on instinct and intuition. This was risky, because if you made the wrong g, you could lose millions of dollars,” says Carmona. Now, his predictive analytics consultancy works with football clubs in major leagues to take some of the guesswork out of gs.