Most people think they need more experience. What they actually need is proof.

In football, especially in roles like scouting or analysis, your ability to show your thinking matters more than the qualifications on your CV. That's where an online portfolio comes in.

And no, I'm not talking about a quiet blog or a forgotten LinkedIn post from three years ago. I'm talking about a living, breathing body of work that demonstrates how you think about the game.

The shift that changed everything for me

When I was working in the gambling industry, I had zero connections in football. No network. No credentials. No inside track. What I did have was free time during lockdown and the willingness to share my work publicly.

I started posting analysis on X. Simple stuff — data visualisations, player comparisons, scouting reports on Championship players. Nothing groundbreaking. But it was consistent, it was mine, and it showed how I thought.

If your work isn't online, it doesn't exist. This is the key to building your network and attracting opportunities in the game.

Within months, I was getting DMs from other analysts. Then freelance opportunities with clubs and agents. Then part-time work alongside my day job. Then full-time employment in football.

None of that came from a CV. It came from proof.

What clubs actually look for

I've sat on the other side of the table now. When we're looking at candidates for analyst or scout roles, the first thing we check isn't their degree or their PFSA certificate. It's their portfolio.

Can they communicate insights clearly? Do they understand positional context? Can they work with data and present it in a way that's useful to a coaching staff who don't care about xG models — they care about whether a player can do the job?

A strong portfolio answers all of those questions before you even walk into an interview.

How to start

You don't need to be a Python expert. You don't need access to premium data. You need to pick a topic, do the work, and put it where people can see it. X, LinkedIn, Medium, a personal site — the platform matters less than the consistency.

Start with what you know. If you watch League One every week, write about League One. If you're good with Tableau, build a dashboard. If you understand positional profiling, write a scouting report.

The bar isn't perfection. The bar is proof that you're serious.