Countless professional football clubs heavily rely on premium football scouting software, such as Impect, StatsBomb, Opta, or SciSports, for comprehensive data analysis. While these tools offer an extensive array of features, they can be (too) expensive, particularly for smaller clubs and aspiring scouts (or fantasy football enthusiasts). Fortunately, excellent free alternatives exist. In this article, we'll spotlight six of the top options for free football scouting software.
Tip: in our guide to become a football scout we have an more extensive list with Football scouting software, tools and technology
Free football scouting software and tools
- Transferroom xTv
- FBref
- Xvalue
- Sofascore
- Understat
- Smarterscout
#1: Transferroom: Expected Transfer Value
Estimating the cost of a specific football player is a million-dollar question that often sparks debates among fans, especially during transfer windows. While every transfer is unique, there is a method to make more informed predictions: the xTV tool from Transferroom.
Transferroom is a football transfer platform, connecting clubs and agents to expedite transfer deals. With over 700 global club users, it’s a trusted source for market insights. They offer a free tool, the Expected Transfer Value (xTV), to estimate a player’s transfer cost based on factors like ability, age, parent club, and contract length. It benchmarks them against similar players and considers historical transfer fees. Discover a player’s expected transfer value easily with the xTV tool.
#2: FBREF: free goldmine of football data
FBREF is a comprehensive football statistics platform that provides a treasure trove of data and insights. This platform offers a vast array of statistics related to players, teams, and matches from various football leagues worldwide. For aspiring scouts, FBREF is a goldmine of information. You can access player statistics, including key performance metrics like goals, assists, passing accuracy, and much more. This data allows scouts to assess player capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses more effectively. They also provide detailed team statistics, offering insights into how teams perform as a whole, their attacking and defensive strengths, and other vital information. This can help scouts identify teams that might be worth further analysis or players who excel within certain systems.
Don’t be fooled by the website’s layout; it’s a highly valuable tool.
#3: Xvalue.ai: advanced analytics and AI capabilities
Xvalue.ai, a relatively new but powerful tool, offers a wealth of player and team statistics from various leagues. This data enriches scouts’ understanding of player performance, strengths, and areas for growth. Additionally, the platform sheds light on team dynamics, tactics, and overall performance, providing a comprehensive view of a club’s attributes and vulnerabilities.
A standout feature of Xvalue.ai lies in its advanced analytics and AI capabilities. Powered by Soccerment, a leader in Soccer Data Intelligence, the platform boasts an intuitive interface and a pricing structure that’s more budget-friendly compared to its competitors. Moreover, Xvalue.ai provides a free version and a 14-day free trial of the premium offering, making it accessible for scouts at various levels
#4: Sofascore: a wealth of data and insights
Sofascore is a sports data platform that offers a wealth of data and insights for many different sports, including football. It provides an extensive collection of statistics, live scores, and in-depth analysis for various football leagues and matches worldwide.
Sofascore’s coverage extends beyond the top leagues, making it an excellent resource for discovering talent in lesser-known competitions. The platform’s comprehensive database includes player ratings, heatmaps, and a wide range of performance metrics, enabling scouts to assess players more thoroughly. The platform also offers a dedicated app, making it accessible on the go.
#5: Understat: expected goals and assists
Understat is another handy tool for (aspiring) football scouts. Unlike other tools, Understat primarily focuses on Expected Goals (xG) and Expected Assists (xA) and provides detailed xG statistics for the top European leagues. The platform’s primary strength lies in its ability to quantify the quality of scoring opportunities, helping scouts identify players who consistently create or convert high-value chances.
Understat has a user-friendly interface and detailed visualizations. While the tool is free, it’s important to note that its league coverage is limited, focusing on prominent leagues including the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1, and the Russian Premier League.
#6: Smarterscout: predict how a player in one league might succeed in another
Smarterscout is a quick and user-friendly website for analyzing how well football players perform globally. It uses special formulas to figure out how much players help their teams win, what kind of playing style they have, and how skilled they are. Also, it has a super helpful feature for predicting how well a player from one league might do in another.
Currently, smarterscout provides data from 55 football leagues worldwide. It’s free for Lite members, who receive five searches and player profiles daily at no cost. However, access for Lite users is limited to just 7 leagues:
- English Premier League
- French Ligue 1
- German Bundesliga
- Italian Serie A
- Spanish La Liga
- UEFA Champions League
- UEFA Europa League
In addition to their tool, they frequently publish articles suggesting player signings to clubs, using data and similarities in playing styles as the basis for their recommendations.
Maximizing scouting success: the integrated approach
While the most advanced football analytics and data platforms typically come with a price tag, aspiring football scouts have a range of free data analytics platforms at their disposal, each with its unique advantages. These tools simplify the scouting process, whether you’re exploring player performance, team dynamics, or transfer values. By utilizing these resources, you can elevate your player assessments, gain a competitive edge, and advance your football scouting journey.
To achieve the best results, an integrated approach that combines data scouting with video scouting and live scouting is essential.
However, it’s crucial to remember that data scouting represents just the initial step and cannot singularly provide a comprehensive solution for an effective recruitment strategy. To achieve the best results, an integrated approach that combines data scouting with video scouting and live scouting is essential. This integrated scouting strategy offers the best approach to talent identification and player evaluation.
Want to become a football scout?
At 360 Scouting, we are always looking for new high-quality video scouts. And we believe finding a job should not be about being well-connected. A background in professional football is no requirement either. In our application procedure, we just test your skills and knowledge very thoroughly. The best ~1% of applicants become a part of our team.
There is an application round every two months. Here you’ll find all the information you need to apply as a football scout.
