11 Questions with Dani Ruiz Antequera

The pursuit of wisdom in any walk of life quickly reveals that what you think you know is not nearly enough to get you to where you want to go. As I'm starting out in my football scouting journey I challenged myself to reach out to those already working in various roles in football to answer a short list of questions. My goal wasn't to get answers but relevant perspectives on the game within the game.

Here is Dani Ruiz Antequera:

How did your first opportunity in football come about?

I saw a post in Twitter. My friend Mario Prieto (@mario_6PM) was searching for a video analyst for Víctor Fernández (@victorfdezfuent), the Canillas Juvenil B coach at that moment. I asked for information about it and  we quickly came to an agreement. That is pretty much how I became the Canillas Juvenil B video analyst.

What attracted you to scouting/analytics? What’s more intriguing now names or numbers?

Well, I have studied a Physics Degree. After that, I wanted to continue my studies with something about data and, I think it was just fate, but I came across a Sports Big Data Master's Degree. I went for the Master’s, which taught me what I know about this world. On top of that, football is my passion, so it seemed like the most appealing option to me.

If you asked me about what is most intriguing, I would say numbers. Anyone can distinguish which players are very very good or very very bad, but the difficult part is coming to realise which average players might become outstanding. It is a difficult but worthy task. Everyone knows that Mbappé is an excellent player, but Haaland had been discovered just because of his remarkable statistics. In addition, numbers bring us closer objectivity. With this purpose I am doing what I am doing, I think that using data and video analysis, objectivity can be closer than ever.

Who/what is the first player/concept you "found"? What caught your eye?

While I was doing an internship in Sporting de Gijón football club I was carrying a research about strikers. I built my own metrics and I classified these numbers in quintiles. If a player metric was in the first quintile, this metric had a mark of 1, if it was in the second quintile, a mark of 2, and so on. With this methodology, it was a striker who was outlined, Jonathan David, KAA Gent player. It would be recommendable to keep an eye on him!

If you could start over what skill would you build on first?

Marketing skills. I have learnt that you can do something really well but if you don´t know how to sell it, nobody is going to know about it, and as a result,  you are going to lose a lot of opportunities.

Do you see player development as more of an art or a science? Is development on the club or the player? Why?

I think that a part of it is pure art, the innate talent of the player and of their coaches, but the other part is science. We need science to improve in any field. In this case, studies about tactics, performance etc. are going to give important information about player development.

Development is on both, the club and the player. On the one hand, the club needs to put up the ways and players also have to put their attitude in  line with it.

What is your favorite sports moment? Why?

I have  some special moments in mind.

It is always special when your team wins a Champions League. I’m lucky that mine has won 13 times (I have seen 5 of them). And my national team  has won a World Cup and 3 Eurocups (I have seen 2).

But if I  had to choose only one, I  would stick to Capello’s Liga, it was really impressive.

What coach/player/team inspires you? Why?

I’m going to say two names: Ramón Rodríguez Verdejo, ‘Monchi’, the Sevilla Sports Director. I think he is innovative and all a pioneer, a person who knew how to come early in data analytics to reach success with his team. So, he is a role model to me.

And Rafa Nadal. I admire his mentality. He never gives up.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to get into media/analytics?

I  would tell them  to try and get a lot of football formation and attempt to discover their strength and develop it.

What is your favorite app/tool to use (for fun!)?

I like Twitter and Instagram a lot. Instagram is entertaining for me, watching the stories, the photos…In Twitter, I can read a lot of information about football. There is a great deal of members who share their analysis, apps, etc. I find it interesting.

What other sport/hobby/discipline do you feel improves your work as an analyst? Why?

The sport I do is Judo. I don´t know if it improves my work as analyst but I have had some analysis ideas while I was practising it ;)