Scouting Manager – Manchester

Join adidas Europe and shape the future of the sporting goods industry! For over 75 years, our European heritage has been a fusion of culture and innovation, driving global sports trends. Our offices, from Herzogenaurach to London, Berlin, Zaragoza, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Athens, Milan, Manchester, and Paris, are centers of creativity and collaboration. We aim to be Europe's best sports brand, seeking pioneers and visionaries to join our bold journey.

At adidas, you're not just getting a job; you're invited to make a global impact, joining a team that values creativity, courage and innovation. Are you ready to be part of our journey?

Manchester:

You’ll be joining our Stockport Head office, home to 18 showrooms, our Conference Centre, staff Wellness Hub, a truly state-of-the-art gym - fully loaded with Peloton, Padel and Pilates! & every piece of gym equipment you can imagine. An indoor astroturf pitch, chat boxes & creative corners creative spaces. Our Stockport team consists of over 350 adidas employees, working across, Brand, Sports Marketing, Marketing Activations, Visual Merchandising, Sales, Account Operations, Finance, HR & many more.

What you’ll do:

· To detect, identify and sign the young upcoming talents, future icon of adidas.

· This role plays an instrumental part in the way that the brand is portrayed within the global football market and ensures on a day to day basis that we continue to raise the awareness and image of adidas as the No. 1 Global football brand.

· Scouting is key strategy for the future of adidas football in order to make sure the stars of tomorrow play with adidas today and in the future (from signing through their career).

· Servicing criteria at player is extremely demanding. This position relies heavily on interpersonal skills and relationship building to achieve higher levels of partner collaboration.

· Absolute consistency in the approach to servicing and gaining full value from player associations is critical and team work is essential to drive standards upwards.

· adidas has always been associated with the best symbols and provides the best service. The brand of choice by professionals.

Key Responsibilities:

· To detect, identify and sign the young upcoming talents, future icon of adidas.

· To become a key contact in the world of Young players by providing excellence of servicing and product supply.

· To provide an integrated approach to securing the best young football talents from young age and establish adidas as the desirable brand for young players and professionals alike. 

· To create a network in the world of football among Scouts, Coaches, Regional advisers, agents.

· To attend to national and international Youth events and use them as a platform for scouting (Identify, contact, network and sign).

· To work within the adidas international football team and contribute to the global scouting strategy by bringing local expertise and information.

· Key contributor to feed, maintain and exploit the global scouting database by ensuring an accurate, regular, and professional update of the data.

· To utilise industry knowledge to provide feedback to the brand at all times: Players info, competitor activity, product feedback.

To manage the Global Scouting budget for your Territory

To be able to identify the marketing potential of each talent and involve him in the main brand moments

Key Relationships:

· Internal : brand marketing, Product team, BU Football, GTM, Athlete Service

· Football Sports Marketing teams Global & Local, adidas partners, Global Player Managers (to Local Player Managers), Global Scouting Managers

· External : players, agents, clubs, football industry network

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

· Football background as a player on high level and/or coaching (1-2 years experience).

· Football fanatic.

· Needs to have both football knowledge and business mindset.

· Schedule flexibility: Position requires substantial travel (60% to 70%) for meeting with agents, clubs and attendance to games.

· Fluency in English, other languages are nice to have

Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications:

The individual must be highly motivated and focused on task in hand. He must be extremely well organised with an empathy towards the sport in which he is dealing with.

· Focused.

· Good planning & organisation.

· Product Knowledge.

· Good interpersonal skills.

· Good communication-verbal and written skills.

· Proficiency with computers and standard software (Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel)

· Football Market and Industry Awareness.

· Football sport knowledge

· Commercial awareness, knowledge of the sporting goods business model.

· Good negotiation skills.

· Good network and reputation in the world of football.

· Ability and commitment to retain absolute confidentiality concerning all business matters.

· Driven to succeed and deliver against goals and work expectations.

· Understanding of the issues facing players (e.g. financial, media, moving, languages, etc.) and the ability to help adidas develop programs to assist players with these issues…

· University degree and some specific education in Sports Management would be ideal.

· 2-4 years of professional experience in sports or goods industry.

Life at adidas:

UK

We operate a flexible hybrid model with 3 fixed days in the office and the flexibility for you to choose where you work from on the other 2 days. Additionally, we want to accommodate candidates wherever possible with one of our many different flexible working policies, whatever your situation, working around childcare, dependants or other life commitments.

To ensure everyone feels welcome we endeavour to accommodate everyone at all stages of the application and interview process. Should you need it, please let your recruitment partner know and they will be more than happy to help.