For the Milan sporting director, statistics can help, for the Juventus CEO they are the basis of all phases of a club’s life. But, in the end, to determine the purchase of a footballer, the final approach is very similar
So distant, so close. In the last week there has been a lot of talk about the approach to recruiting players, whether to rely on data and algorithms or old-fashioned scouting, carried out in person. First of all, the words of Damien Comolli at Hudl Performance Insights 2025, held in London, in which the Juventus CEO claimed that “Juve knew that I would come with the data because that is the way I think, it is part of my way of leading the club”. Then shortly after the indirect reply from Milan’s sporting director, Igli Tare, who underlined how “the data can help, but I would leave them in the background because a group lives by its own logic. I think like this, and this is how I behave”. But are the two positions really distant and irreconcilable?
the words of tare and comolli on the data
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In truth, less than you think. Meanwhile, it is useful to make a clarification: the Juventus manager spoke at a high-level conference on the use of data, so it was inevitable that the focus would be above all on that. The Rossoneri’s transfer man, however, took part in a 360° interview in a context in which representatives of the Italian and international football industry compared each other. Of course, the approaches of the two are different (for Comolli the data commands in all phases of the club’s life, from the tactical approach to injury prevention, for Tare they can be a good plus), but the conclusion they reach to determine the choice of a player to buy is very similar. Let’s see in detail.
How is personality assessed?
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“It’s important to understand the degree of personality that accompanies each footballer and personality is measured in person,” the Albanian pointed out. “The data gives us an indication of the player’s character and personality, but not everything. We let the data do the work, we watch some videos, but we don’t use scouts like other clubs do – the Frenchman explained to the Excellent Leadership Podcast in September a year ago, recounting his experience at Toulouse -. Our head of recruitment spends 3-5 days with each final objective: he goes to their house, goes out to dinner, asks to be taken to their favorite restaurant, to the nightclub if they have one, asks to meet mum, dad, siblings, to understand if their culture integrates with ours”. So, with different initial assumptions, the two executives seem to choose the same path when it comes to making a purchase. Comolli said again: “When we interview players, a question I ask is “What game did you see last night?” or “What was the last game you saw on TV?”. If the player doesn’t have an answer, I know immediately that he doesn’t love football, and it’s a wake-up call for us. If you don’t love football, it will be difficult to improve: it’s very difficult to coach someone who doesn’t want to be coached, who doesn’t want to improve, who isn’t dedicated and committed every day. If he isn’t coachable, it’s very difficult that he is successful. If he is not passionate, it is even less likely. We also have a set of questions developed with the club psychologist that we ask players to indirectly evaluate their personality, even if they don’t realize they are being evaluated psychologically.”
Comolli and the comparison between Sinner and center forwards
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“One is strong if he knows how to get up after a mistake, at that moment you have to demonstrate that you are able to withstand the pressure of a great club like ours”, added Igli Tare at the Turin event on the personalities of the players, who is also the sporting director of a Milan team whose owner Gerry Cardinale has never made a secret of taking inspiration from Moneyball and Billy Beane, the historic baseball manager who was the first to put into practice a system of selecting athletes based exclusively on statistical data. “The million dollar question is to understand what difference there is between a mid-level striker and a top one. It can’t just be technical, it’s psychological – explained the Juventus CEO in London a week ago -. I saw Sinner the other day in Turin and I thought, to play like this you have to be extremely concentrated and relaxed at the same time. Like in front of the goal. And this is very difficult, you need the ability to relax and breathe in much less than a second”. Different words, similar concepts: in short, so distant, so close.
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