Febian Brandy was a rising star in Manchester United’s academy. Having dropped down the leagues throughout his career as a professional footballer, he has pleged to help aspiring players with an app called Skouted. He tells Stretty News about giving young players a platform to promote themselves in a difficult industry.
Brandy spent more than a decade in United’s academy but there is more to him than that. He provides a platform to help tomorrow’s stars, knowing how difficult it has been for some of his friends in the game to develop contacts.
Essentially, it’s a network of 20,000+ active users set up to help players and scouts in equal measures.
“Skouted is a global digital football app where football players can upload video footage of themselves in order to get seen and scouted,” Brandy told Stretty News. “We understand clubs can get scouts to watch a player but we’re trying to put the power with the players trying to get seen.
“It’s one thing a scout trying to see 100 players in a weekend, so Skouted makes it a lot easier for the football team and scout to see these players.”
It is the LinkedIn of football and has been downloaded in 88 different countries where players can promote themselves – only showing their highlights – but credit goes to Brandy for giving something back to the game. He understands how important grassroots football is, too.
“The reason why this app is really effective is grassroots football is massive. There are so many talented football players in grassroots football that they get overlooked and slip through the net. You are getting teams in the Premier League bringing in kids – aged 3-4 – to develop them just because there is so much talent out there that goes unnoticed.
“We had a lad from grassroots football that was in Regents Park in London at the age of 13 and we found him on the Skouted app and we put him into Watford but they didn’t end up signing him. That lad went on two years later to sign for Arsenal. He just signed a two year contract and he’s on the verge of being called up to England U16s. That’s just one example of players taking it in their own control to get seen by top teams.”
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Brandy added: “I’ve been there, I wore the t-shirt and I know how it is from a footballer’s perspective. I also know what scouts are looking for as well, so with my experience as an ex-footballer who has been involved in Champions League squads; who has trained with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes. I’ve got that experience and all I want to do with Skouted is give players the best opportunity to get seen.”
When asked if he learned anything from his time at United into his work life. He said: “Manchester United is one of the best teams to come through, especially era during the Sir Alex Ferguson years. If you were five minutes late you had people like Gary Neville tell you not to be late. These were things we needed to have in life so I was fortunate to be around those sort of players to keep us ground because we looked at them as big brothers. That’s where my work ethic comes into Skouted because I had those people around me.”
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