Toulouse FC are back in Ligue 1 Uber Eats - thanks in no small part to some intelligent recruitment, including the innovative use of data, which has changed their prospects. Check it out...
As it has been doing since its takeover two years ago, Toulouse FC continues to recruit 'smart' this summer, relying heavily on statistical data. The method's value has been underlined by the club's return to Ligue 1 Uber Eats with the help of a number of players who were previously unknown quantities.
When he arrived in La Ville Rose in the summer of 2020, Branco van den Boomen was coming off several seasons in the Dutch second division after failing to make his mark at Ajax, his boyhood club.
"TFC entered the profile of the player they were looking for into the computer," the 27-year-old midfielder explained ingenuously. "And my name came up in the list."
A new approach
The club from the Haute-Garonne, relegated to Ligue 2 BKT after a nightmare season, had just been bought by the American investment fund RedBird Capital Partners, which entrusted the presidency to Damien Comolli. The 49-year-old French executive, who has worked in various positions at English clubs Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool, has long been a fan of data and statistics.
Data is widely used in the US sports world and is at the heart of the TFC's recruitment strategy, turning the offices at the Stadium into something looking like a start-up over the past two years.
"We work with companies that provide us with data, and then we have statisticians, our own software, our own algorithms, which help us in all the decisions we make in the management of the club," explained Comolli.
Around sixty different leagues are scrutinised by the head of data, Julien Demeaux, and his team, in order to unearth - at a lower cost - stars of the future, who are sometimes undervalued on the market.
Don't neglect the 'human element'
Van den Boomen, named last season as the best player in Ligue 2 BKT, with 20 assists (league a record) and 12 goals, is the most emblematic success of the method. But he is not the only one. British striker Rhys Healey, who arrived from Milton Keynes in the English third division, was crowned top scorer in Ligue 2 BKT (20 goals) at the end of the last season.
The Téfécé also pulled out of their statistical hat Dutch midfielder Stijn Spierings and Belgian midfielder Brecht Dejaegere, both of whom also played an essential role in the club's return to the top flight.
The club's recruitment policy, which has been pursued since the summer window opened, has been strengthened by the signing of players from the Dutch league (Moroccan striker Zakaria Aboukhlal and Dutchman Thijs Dallinga) and Scandinavia (Norwegian goalkeeper Kjetil Haug and Swedish defender Oliver Zanden).
A team is forged
Coach Philippe Montanier finds himself at the head of a novel grouping of some fifteen different nationalities communicating both in French and English. But diversity is no barrier to cohesion at Toulouse, and, with the help of results, a strong melding of foreigners and young locals, the 'pitchounes' has taken hold. According to the head man in the Toulouse dressing room, data is not everything.
"The president relies on many other things, especially the human factor," said Montanier at the end of June, when training resumed. "We have seen that the quality of the team is not only technical, but also in terms of the state of mind. Our data helps us, but there is the competence of the teams behind it. It's a people-based project."
Data can also be an interesting source of profit. Bought for a pittance from De Graafschap, van den Boomen now has a completely different valuation on the transfer market. Cha-ching!
