Hi guys, and thank you for joining! 👋
What first pulled you into football, and what made you stay?
We all arrived here through different paths: coaching, analysis, scouting, performance, media, tech, academia…
But there’s usually a moment: a match, a person, a question... that triggered everything.
What was yours?
What made you decide that football wasn’t just something you watched, but something you wanted to understand, improve, or build around?
For example:
I remember being fascinated not by the goals, but by the spaces between players. Why did one team always seem to have an extra second on the ball? Why did certain movements destabilize entire defensive blocks? That curiosity about structure and decision-making slowly turned into analysis, and analysis turned into a profession.
Now it’s your turn! 👇
My journey began eight years ago when I started the DataScience EngD program at the Jheronimus Academy of Data Science in the Netherlands 🎒
I thought that to be a successful data scientist, focusing on one sector and gaining domain knowledge was essential, as data skills alone are not enough 🔍
So I asked myself which area could keep me motivated in the long term 🤔
Banking?
Manufacturing?
Energy?
...
None of them felt motivating enough 🫠
That's when I decided to try football ⚽
If it worked, great 😊
If not, at least I wouldn't regret not trying 😉
That is how the self-learning process started, with me spending one day each weekend in the Eindhoven University of Technology's library, going through football data papers and trying to understand them 📚
And the journey continues with all its ups and downs 🛣️
https://linkedin.com/in/hadisotudeh