In all likelihood, there’s never been another search for sports talent like the one Josep Colomer and his team of fellow scouts conducted during a decade in Africa. They held tryouts for more than 400,000 boys on dirt fields across the continent, not for some prominent European team but for the rich desert kingdom of Qatar, which is intent on buying its way onto the international sports scene. “The Away Game” goes behind the scenes to learn how talented young players are selected and how they deal with the competitive pressures of training at a state-of-the-art, billion-dollar sports academy.
Here’s an excerpt from The Away Game:
“Scouting for soccer players is often a shoestring operation, even toward the upper echelons of the sport. Scouts in England, for example, endure long hours behind the wheel driving to places like Yeovil and Hartlepool to watch a steady parade of games. They subsist on ham and mustard sandwiches, or perhaps rice, curry, and chips, frequently eaten on the run. They constantly worry about job security, especially amid the oft-promised data revolution looming over the soccer world. For their troubles, they are often paid a measly 40 pence a mile or so, as chronicled by Michael Calvin in 'The Nowhere Men,' a touching portrait of this largely invisible clan. ‘Scouts may be marginalized, professionally but they possess the power of dreams,’ wrote Calvin.”
