It was way back in the mid 2000's. I had completed my PMR examinations, and were left with plenty of time of enjoy before enrolling for my 4th year in secondary school. There I was, wondering what to do with no more homeworks, no more tuitions and no more tests... My big brother, who is 5 years older than I am, persuaded me to play Football Manager. I think back then it was still Championship Manager, where Sports Interactive & Eidos are still in good terms. I have been watching my brother and my uncle playing the game for several years before, they were the fanatics of football. But I was not so into football just yet, I was more inclined towards books and studies..

But then I told myself, why not just fill up your time with this game. Just give it a go. And that was how I started my addiction to the game. Even up until now, being a  married adult with two kids, I still sneak out some time to play the game.

Anyways.. The main reason why I started sharing on my experience with football manager was this, it has ENORMOUS amount of data. I remembered looking at the player's profile filled up with all sorts of attribute ratings. Tackling, Finishing, Passing, Pace.... At first there were only a few sets of data, but with time the database grew.. It even accurately estimate a player's aggression, teamwork, concentration etc, after sending scouts all over the globe.

A snapshot of a player's profile in FM13

At first I thought it was only a game, with fictitious data and ridiculous assumptions on players ability. To my amazement, Football Manager actually owns the largest number of scouts in the world! Their database of players are fairly accurate, considering they had successfully predicted the future career of lionel messi, nani, neymar, fabregas etc.. Well, there are also some players that never made it to the bigger stage, such as freddy adu or sherman cardenas.. but well, I'd say at least 60% of the data can be fully trusted will be translated on the field. That is just remarkable.

Now, more and more managers and club officials are relying on the information from the game. Instead of going from scratch to scout talents, they use the game to surface potential next big stars to scout on. Remember Dennis Wise & Newcastle? He depended too much on FM data that most of his signings were not good enough (he obviously tries to find raw talent at the cheapest price, and end up buying players from an unknown club that struggle to adjusts). Other This is what I call the advancement of technology that changes the entire landscape of an industry.

Data- the new diamonds... I bet to access the full database, clubs are more than willing to make a certain amount of payments to FM. Just to know between player A and player B, which one is more prone to injury? which one relishes big matches or which one has high temperament? All these information are now collected from FM scouts all over the world. Amazing, right?

On top of these, I was once called to discuss with a job portal agency on an IT solution that they requires.. They were planning to collect information and data from candidates to be matched more accurately with what potential employers want.. They wanted to collect data such as writing proficiency, speaking, articulating ideas, mathematical reasoning, etc so that whatever the employer wants, it can be quickly mapped to the desired proficiency level, as a first level of screening. They wanted to have a tool that will enable them to do this. So that they can later sell to potential employers not just the CV, but also let employers browse through their sets of database of candidates.. How much resemblance does that has with FM scouting system?