Hello,
Various elements make talent "hotbeds." They range from resources to development to cultures stemming from players turning professional, proving success, and encouraging children to believe through evidence.Â
However, the "source" of talent is not always the place you presume. Instead, it can be another location—an exact neighborhood, city, or country that is the origin of an athlete's "path."
"Hotbeds" are based on development systems, resources, cultures, etc., as mentioned. However, delineating the path of athletes stems from digging into enlightenment and illuminating a more comprehensive sense of the world. History, family ties, regular movement, and any underlying path are always more profound and precise than you think. So, drilling into that accuracy broadens the greater football community's (and the world's) understanding of talent's spread and how and why a pool coalesces. Most importantly, it educates about what creates "hotbeds" and where others are.Â
Many renowned "hotbeds" yield a talent volume because they are either in the "now" or historically revered. Droves of scouts, agents, and more saturate what becomes a "favored" location, providing opportunity. However, others await discovery.Â
Follow some athletes' or their families' paths to the precise neighborhood, city, or potential country where their journey began, and you will find additional places, locations, and "hotbeds." The phrase "from this hotbed" or this "talent factory" that football attaches to players is often misleading. The deeper you go, the more you find a player's path to a renowned "hotbed" (or their family's path to that location) stemming from a place you might not know.Â
At Fisher Talent Group, we have discovered kids in rural communities (our priority), towns' outskirts (another emphasis), and popular city fields. However, after exploring, we learned that many athletes in "popular" areas derive from elsewhere in Eswatini (other regions, communities, etc.), South Africa, or broader. So, if Fisher Talent Group discovers a talented kid in a "known" area but they are from an "unknown" place, we recognize that area has additional talent and merits discovery. It works the opposite: an athlete can be from a prominent "hotbed," city, etc., but living and playing in an "unrecognized" location. Because both ideas exist, each deserves facts that lead to the talent's "source." Understanding this concept is part of Fisher Talent Group's ethos—it connects us "between the lines" and sharpens our understanding of discoveries, pools, and "hotbeds."
I cannot express enough how much scouts, agents, and others determine who gets chances and who does not. Everyone in football can play a part in changing that. We can enable equal discovery opportunities and recognize how and why "hotbeds" form and where others are. Moreover, we can painlessly embrace enlightenment and access broader communities outside capitals, principal cities, and surrounding suburbs or prominent "football countries." Most importantly, we can understand that it does not lessen our appreciation for "known hotbeds" but enhances our understanding. We must know that every current or historical "hotbed" has an equal. Likewise, we must believe in "one world" and understand that the raved-about talent in one area exists in another.Â
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We cannot change the world independently, but we will together.Â
Until next time.
Live forever,
Rob FisherÂ
Executive Director and Head of ScoutingÂ