GETTING INTO THE FOOTBALL ANALYSIS INDUSTRY

If there is one question that I have been throughout my career so far in football, it is definitely this one!

How do I get into the football industry as an analyst?

And if I am totally honest, I can not give you a definitive answer or a blueprint you should follow which would make breaking into the industry successful, like other opportunities in life there are many paths to take, some work out and some do not. My career so far has not been all sunshine and rainbows and there are things that come with working within this industry that you just have to accept whether that is the sacrifices you make or even decisions that are completely out of your control. But here I am going to try and give you as much advice as I can in this first blog post whilst explaining my route into the football industry with much more detail.

Disclaimer: The next section includes more detail on my journey into the football industry as an analyst, if you want to skip this and go straight to my advice then keep scrolling!

Location, Location, Location

I come from a little island in the middle of the English Channel called Guernsey, sometimes your location can be a hindrance to potential employment. This was definitely the case for me, I was an amateur player playing in a local league, representing Guernsey Under 21s once in a friendly. I had always had an interest coaching whilst playing, so I did this on a voluntary basis in Guernsey whilst playing, starting out with an Under 18 team, albeit being only a couple of years older than the players!

Sam Barrell, Guernsey U21 vs Northern Ireland Schools U18

Credit: Andy Dovey (andydoveyphotography.com)

In Guernsey, there were very little employment possibilities within football and the only role which may have been achievable was as a Football Development Officer for the local Football Association. After working ‘normal office jobs’ in Guernsey for a couple of years I decided to head to University. For others this may not be possible and it isn’t the only way into the industry! When at University, I had to build up a CV with football related experiences on it so then when I graduate I can join the competitive market and fight for full time positions in football, and I use the term fight because clubs will have an enormous amount of applications for analyst positions. This is where I did voluntary roles in academies to start building out my CV. Following graduation I went on to do a Masters degree, gaining my first Studentship with Kidderminster Harriers in the National League North, being my first exposure to first team football but applying what I had learnt within the academies I had been volunteering with, along with building knowledge through studies, podcasts, visiting other analysts within their clubs and all other forms on content related to football and football analysis. Following my Masters degree, COVID happened. This made employment opportunities very difficult, having an interview with a League One club and being unsuccessful following interview, I ended up going back home to Guernsey. This is where I will relate to things being out of your control and getting very fortunate. FIFA were looking for Football Analysts to undertake their new Data Collection project, the early infancy of the analysis that was created for the 2022 World Cup which you may have seen in report format during the tournament. As this job was remote it worked out very fortunately for me, however whilst working this role I was also back to coaching in Guernsey supporting head coaches in the Priaulx League spending time with St Martins AC and Northerners AC, in the highest local division on the island outside of the Guernsey FC non-league setup, whilst also completing my UEFA C Coaching Licence.

Credit: Andy Dovey (andydoveyphotography.com)

Opportunities & Setbacks

My employment with FIFA ended in September 2021 and my first break and potential to work within a club came with a lot of risk, completing the interview process and a work trial before being offered employment at Scunthorpe United Football Club, following their relegation from League Two surrounded by a lot of financial issues which were known to the public. I packed my bags and left Guernsey on my own again to head up to Scunthorpe, with a lot of financial difficulties surrounding the club a few months into the National League campaign, I applied for an opportunity with a League One club, the same club that I was unsuccessful with previously. Again, very fortunate given the financial circumstances that followed at Scunthorpe United I was able to move on in October 2022 to join Lincoln City finishing the campaign 11th in League One.

What then happened in the summer was something I was not expecting, I was informed a couple of days before returning for pre-season that due to a staff restructure in the performance analysis department that my employment would be ending. I had returned to Lincoln without a job and had a month to find a new one, if I was unsuccessful then I would have to return back to Guernsey. As I had contacts in the game I was relentlessly phoning people I knew to see if they had job opportunities. Exeter City had put up an advert for a Lead Match Analyst, for which the job posting had expired. I got in contact with an old colleague to see if they had contact details for somebody at the club. I had to then phone said person to explain my situation and see if I could still apply for the role. Again, going through the interview process having a first stage and second stage interview I was offered the job. Again, very fortunate that this had happened given my current circumstances. So off I headed to Exeter, filling my car to the brim with all my belongings and starting fresh again.

My time at Exeter City, I look back on fondly and they took a real interest in my development as an analyst completing my UEFA B Coaching Licence during my time there, it was the perfect fit for me given the previous setbacks. I worked as a Lead Match Analyst for a season before moving into Recruitment as an analyst for another season a couple of months into the 2025/26 season before having the opportunity to join Derby County in October 2025. So from the outside, things may look completely different to what actually occurred and you need to be prepared to deal with the setbacks. From my own perspective, I owe a lot of people a great deal to be trusted with the opportunities I was presented with and if I had not gone through those experiences, I may not be where I am today and for that I am forever thankful to those people.

Anyway, enough of my own story. I’m here to help you on your own journey.

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What I would recommend...

You have to be visible within the industry, although it can be uncomfortable, put yourself out there and you’d be surprised by the amount of people who are out there and willing to help.

Create a Portfolio of Work

Creating a portfolio of work I believe is not only essential to be able to display your capabilities to others, it’s also a great development tool to take you through different requirements that need different skillsets. From this you can evaluate and review your own work and compare this with others. This should be an online portfolio that is easy to access and easy to share with others, there are many examples of where people share this work online, LinkedIn and Twitter being two great sources and would recommend looking at what content others are putting online as there is some superb work out there, even from those who do not work directly in the industry.

Develop your own skillsets

Being able to see other people’s work is a benefit and can help you going forward to develop your own skillset, you should be aware of what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are, do you need to develop tactical understanding of the game? or do you need to work within a specific software to gain familiarity? These questions relate to your technical skills which are mentioned on job descriptions, also save the job descriptions somewhere for roles within the industry and compare yourself to them directly and what they require.

Soft skills are also vitally important, it’s important to focus on these. You can do these in your daily life even when in other industries, I would recommend consuming content through books, podcasts and other forms when you can and look to understand others and their experiences, you’d likely relate to a lot more people than you think you will!

Create your Network

A network of people is so important in the football industry, you will always have one contact who will have another contact within the game and you never know when you may need that! You can use your network to expand your own knowledge, have a mentor, share ideas with etc. Please be aware that if you’re looking to create a network of people you are not looking to only look at this from an individual perspective of how can this person help me, you can also be the one to help others. I have had great relationships with those in the game who I would now consider close friends. It is also worth considering connecting with people in other sports and see how they do things as these can also relate to football.

If you are at University, you may have an advantage as either people on your course may be in a similar field on internships or your course leaders and lecturers may have contacts within the game, or your University offers opportunities for potential internships with clubs.

If you are not at University, LinkedIn is a great tool to use but use it wisely which leads us nicely into what I would advise against doing.

What I would avoid doing…

Dry LinkedIn Messaging

LinkedIn is a great platform and superb for being able to create connections with those in the industry, I would recommend not looking to directly message these people in the roles with dry messages, and by dry messages I mean something like the following;

‘Hi Sam,

I am an aspiring analyst who is looking to get into the industry, do you have any jobs or roles I can do either paid or unpaid.’

I receive messages like this constantly, too many to even respond to and as much as I would like to help those, there are that many messages that I cannot respond to them all. The questions that follow an approach like this in my mind go to the following:

You have not showed any examples of work, so how can I assess your future employment capabilities?
How many other people and clubs have you sent this to? Sometimes people don’t even change the name to who they are messaging and get caught out, as an example instead of ‘Hi Sam’ it would say ‘Hi Matt’.
Interview processes have to be thorough and fair, all applicants need to go through the same evaluation/screening process.

Instead of this, and as mentioned before create a portfolio of work and have examples of your work that you can send on to people, when sending these messages you can ask if there are any opportunities or roles which may be advertised soon that you can apply for. Those in positions at clubs are far more likely to look at your messages if you include examples of your work and give off a good first impression. Some may give you feedback but be aware that people in roles are very busy and can’t always do this, so do not take it personally.

There is no such thing as a perfect route into the football industry, the journey is filled with highs and lows but if you are willing to put yourself out there, deal with setbacks and constantly strive for improvement, there is a way in! I hope this has given you insight into the industry and food for thought for how you can apply this advice in the future!