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Youth Scouting
When it comes to choosing a scout, it can be confusing. Each scout has a rating out of five in both ‘experience’ and ‘judgment’ - but what do these mean? Well, a scout with good experience will have more players on every report, and he’s also more likely to find the player type you’re looking for - if you’re searching for the next wonderkid goalkeeper, he’s less likely to bring back a bunch of strikers. Secondly, judgment refers to the quality of players the scout will find, with higher judgment obviously producing higher quality players. While you can find top players with bad scouts, it’s much better to buy a top-notch scout if you can afford it.
Once you’ve picked your scout, you need to decide where to send them. Not every country is rated equally, and some give you a better chance of finding great players than others. Brazil and Argentina have the highest chance of finding what the game calls ‘platinum’ players - youth players with the highest OVRs and potentials - so scout there first. It is actually entirely possible to find the next Messi in Australia (one of the lowest rated places to scout - sorry Aussies), but it’s much harder than in Brazil or Argentina.
If you like, you can also tell your scout to look for a specific type of player, such as a pacey winger or a creative playmaker. Somewhat frustratingly, you can’t actually search for a certain position (apart from goalkeepers), and different types will bring back players in several positions. So Defensive Minded will find you centre backs, full backs and defensive midfielders. Playmaker will find you central midfielders but sometimes wingers. Use a bit of lateral thinking and it soon becomes clear what each player type is likely to get you. Note also that by some weird quirk, searching for the Attacker player type won’t actually find you any strikers - instead, try Physically Strong or Technically Gifted.
When players first appear on your scouting reports, they will have two stat ranges - Overall and Potential. The former refers to how good the player currently is, while the latter predicts how good he will eventually become. When deciding whether to sign a player to your youth academy, you should focus on potential - a player with a low overall (OVR) but a high potential will rapidly improve thanks to his strong future ability, whereas a player in the opposite situation will likely start out strong but quickly stall.
As a final note, other teams can also ‘scout’ their own players. When a player retires, he is replaced by what basically amounts to a younger version of himself, playing in the same division as the retired player (but not necessarily for the same side). These players are known as regens. Keep an eye out for high quality players who are on the verge of retiring - next season, search for young players of the same nationality and playing in the same division and you could find yourself a cheap future superstar.
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