Former president of Ultras and present at the club for almost seven years, Standard Club”>Maxime Filot is at the initiative of the network of partner clubs which has been in place for 5 seasons. Over the past three years, he has restructured the Scouting and Youth Recruitment sector.
Maxime, can you retrace your journey at the club?
“As everyone knows, I have spent more than 20 years in the Ultras, including ten years as President in the 2000s, a period during which I created with three other friends the ASBL La Cosa SL in 2002 which became the official organ of the group. I arrived at the club as director of the DNA of Standard, a position which was destined to evolve. Four years ago, we started the restructuring of the training center. There was of course the creation of the network of partner clubs for which we were the pioneers in Belgium. Since then, other clubs have followed suit. “
What was the purpose of this network?
“There are two strategies: an anchorage in Liège with several clubs in the province and a presence in the other provinces. The goal was also to have an exclusive club per region, like Jette in Brussels which has more than 600 young people. recently held a detect day at CSE Manage in Hainaut with 125 young people registered. This network is an agreed project on the players and supporters of the Standard of tomorrow. In four years, we have invited no less than 22,000 supporters. “
The goal is to identify the best talents and put an option on them.
“It’s a reverse scouting. Our partner clubs give us the names of their best players once a year as well as those who are approached by clubs from D1A and D1B. For these players, we do not expect our Parterner Day in November (more or less 200 young people participate). “
Detect days are also organized in the facilities of partner clubs.
“At clubs recognized as flagship. We do six per year. This season, we have already done three (Jette, Braine and Manage) and we will start again with Jodoigne, Ciney and Givry. At the elite level, we have a digital scouting and more individual. We cover the whole of Belgium even if the closer clubs like Genk, Sint-Truiden, OHL, Seraing or Eupen have more priority. For categories U7 to U11, we will not, for example, go and poach a youngster. to Zulte and uproot him. “
“We cover the whole territory”
Does this allow you to have a view of the whole territory?
“For three years, we have covered a large part of the territory, all of Wallonia and Brussels. At ACFF, there are 46 clubs with three stars and 13 of them are our partners, it’s huge. In Liège, There are seven clubs with three stars. The players from these clubs often have the opportunity to stand out, for example during our partner clubs tournament, the third anniversary of which we celebrated last season. “
At the national level, has there also been a change in scouting?
“Everything has been restructured. We kept the good scouts who were all the same efficient in a structure which was almost non-existent. We had, first of all, to be present at the level of the 24 elite clubs. For example, previously, a youngster playing in a so-called more modest team stood out but we weren’t on it, today it is. We are using all our resources which was not the case before. strength is being able to offer a strong project to young people and their parents focused on football but above all on studies. This means that we have young people who come from the four corners of the country including many Flemish who, after a few weeks, all speak French already. “
“Today a Scout sees 40 to 50 games per season”
Is the work of your scouts more centralized today?
“They cover fewer kilometers. As I said, before, it was unstructured. We had perhaps too many scouts but who saw few matches. Now it’s the other way around. At the elite level, a Scout du Standard sees 40 to 50 matches per year. The U12 to U15 categories are essential because afterwards, we manage to give contracts to the players. We also have about thirty young people, from the U16s, under contract. At the work of our recruiters, we decided to assign them geographical areas according to where they come from. This may seem elementary but before, a scout from Liège could just as easily go to Seraing on Saturday then to Ostend on Sunday. Now, there is a list of priority and secondary clubs. We also hired young scouts and we separated from those who were not exclusively dedicated to Standard. This means that we have a fairly complementary team with young people. and more experienced profiles. An important point is is that they are all staunch supporters of the club and have a very good eye. “
The goal is to quickly target breaches?
“We identify the needs as early as possible in the season. In September, we already know what we are looking for by category. The top players, we must be on it immediately. At the end of October, the first contacts with the families are already established and The files are closed for January, early February. We constantly want to improve our teams. For example, the 2005 generation is very promising. We then decided to recruit nine potential holders over two years for the 2006 generations because they were we have to evolve together. This proves that with our structure, we have a strike force that allows us to be on top of the top players very quickly. ”
“Our school offer is unique with six partner schools.”
So the database is consistent?
“It was weak before the restructuring and today it is exploding. There are no less than 16,000 young people. We are constantly enriching it. We are satisfied because for two and a half years, out of all the players we courted, 85% opted for our project and 35% of the recruited players received the status of top talent. Despite the difficulties encountered in the first team, the aura of Standard is unimaginable. We remain powerful. Our educational offer is unique with six partner schools. has top infrastructure on 22 hectares in lush greenery. In terms of physical preparation, everyone is impressed. As Réginal Goreux and Pierre Locht have said, Standard trains athletes above all. “
The Standard project is therefore more and more attractive.
“We barely reap the fruits of our labor. A good element, we can see it up to six or eight times. Parents are often impressed. The internal validation chain is also important. Our first scouts are d ‘First of all our trainers who we also ask to report. We therefore have a very qualitative and targeted recruitment. In the game at 11, over the last two mercatos, we recruited 26 players with a fairly high percentage of success. J ‘would add that 25% of them have already been contracted. “
