Saga Football Manager in sports management: a technological tool to follow promising players

Abstract

People sighted Football Manager as a comprehensive database that can bring real benefits to clubs. Built by about 1,300 scouts, the game provides access to complete reports of approximately 300 thousand individuals. The aim of this research was to investigate the development of young athletes in relation to current and potential abilities, using the simulator. This quantitative study used sixty reports generated by the simulator, the European and south American soccer season 2015/2016. The athletes were divided in two groups, with young aged 16 to 19 years, and another with 20-23 years. The main results showed the current capacity of the 2019/2020 season, with a significant difference between groups where the G2 showed better results. The results allow us to consider that digital games can be an important tool for information about athletes, making effective communication between managers and scouts in order to predict the performance of athletes on future.