11 Questions with Dániel Sebestyén

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 Dániel Sebestyén:

How did your first opportunity in football come about?

I have been really interested in football since I was a kid, but somehow I wasn't wondering about to work in the industry - which is kind of weird, based on the time I spent with it. About 5-6 years ago I tried to provide a service which wanted to offer match-analysis, but in American Football (as I was an active player and I was really into it back then). At the same time, I found a performance-analyst job in the football industry at a Hungarian company and it was a no-brainer that which option is a better fit for me. After a few rounds of interviews, I was able to start working in the position full-time.

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

I was always really passionate about analytics and analyses. As a kid, I kind of thought that there is some problem with me, as I created statistics and spreadsheets about everything I was interested in. I created tons of statistics-based games - which were playable with a pen, a piece of paper and a few dices - about cycling, F1, football, etc. This is the main reason I guess that I'm a numbers guy.

The scouting part came from this mentioned performance-analyst job. I have watched hundreds of games per year, I have seen thousands of players from every level, and I started to make spreadsheets about the talented, but 'unknown' players and I've been in love with scouting since then.
What player or concept fascinates you? What caught your eye? 

I really like the new forms of approach, when some club tries to solve something with a new idea or by just thinking out of the box. I admire Nordsjaelland because of their development policy, or Midtjylland because they're leaning on statistics and mathematics heavily. Or I can say Hammarby (which is the closest to my heart out of three, as I'm a huge Allsvenskan-fan), who employs David Sumpter, an applied mathematics professor in order to make the team's attack better, and they scored 34% more goals than the second-best team in that category.

What is the biggest misconception you’ve found in this space?

I just physically hate people who say that football is just 22 players running around the ball. Fortunately, I already cut loose from these people.

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

Programming, probably R. 

What is more important player development or recruitment? Why?  

I think that in a perfect world, an effective player development system would be everybody's dream. Now, it's just a matter of club mentality and club culture. There will always be teams who can't or don't want to wait until the youngsters gain experience and develop, and they rather sacrifice the young talents of their academy in order to get immediate success. On the other hand, a lot of clubs can't afford to recruit way better players who would significantly increase the power of the team, and financially it's more reasonable to lean on player development. And there are the clubs who can keep these two things in a nice balance and can be financially and professionally successful.

What is your favourite sports moment? Why?

I love the chaotic events and matches from the sport-world, so I'm gonna mention two. The first one is the 7-1 German victory against Brazil on the 2014 World Cup, where it was shocking to see how ridiculously Germany outplayed the Brazilians and I had butterflies in my stomach and I couldn't believe what I was watching. The other one is also a memorable game from the 2006 Euro, called 'Battle of Nuremberg'. It was a massacre between Portugal and Netherlands as there were 16 yellow and 4 red cards.

What coach/player/team inspires you? Why? 

I really like underdog teams, who can succeed by using a different style of play and a good coach, and who can cope with the giants in their respective league, like Sheffield United, Atalanta or Mönchengladbach.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to get into this space?

I am not there yet where I want to be, so I'm pretty much among the people who usually ask for advice and not give them, but learn, study and read. It is never too late to improve yourself in any aspects and you can always be better at everything. 

Who is your favourite athlete? Why?

Zlatan Ibrahimovic. I know that he is cocky, arrogant and that lot of people hate him, but man, he is an exceptional player and even the haters love to watch him play. I love his personality despite the mentioned bad attributes, as he's been acting like this so good, that it makes him funny and likeable.

What is your favourite quote or saying? 

I have to go with Omar's famous words from 'The Wire' (the greatest series ever):
"It's all in the game, yo."