Our search for some of the world’s top young talent continues, with highly-rated scout Borja de Matias set to join our scouting team and seek out South American stars.
According to Spanish outlet El Comercio, De Matias – who has previously been chief scout at Chicago Fire and assistant coach at Sporting Gijon – will become our head scout for South America as Dan Ashworth continues to grow our recruitment team.
The Spaniard has also worked at Alaves and Independiente – both under former Southampton boss Mauricio Pellegrino – as a video analyst and has become known for his extensive knowledge of Argentinian football.
With the news breaking recently that we are on the verge of signing 18-year-old Gambian youngster Yankubah Minteh, it is clear that we’re looking to improve our academy ranks this summer, not just Eddie Howe’s first-team squad.
Ashworth looks to be building a similar system to the one he had at Brighton where we are able to seek out some of the world’s most exciting talents across the globe.
With De Matias, the hope is that we can replicate the kind of work that was done to secure players like Julio Enciso, Pervis Estupinan and Moises Caicedo for the Seagulls.
Here’s some of the behind-the-scenes additions we’ve made in recent months:
- Edward Black (from Arsenal): Lead Academy Scout
- Paul Mclaren (from Man City): Head of National Youth Scouting
- Paul Midgley (from Man City): Head of Youth Recruitment
- Delroy Ebanks (from West Ham): Academy Lead Scout for youth
- Borja De Matias: Head of Scouting in South America
