"When you take your eyes off the ball, there's a wealth of information to be found." This could well be the mantra of Yaw Amankwah, a former professional defender who played in Norway and Denmark. Since retiring, the Norwegian has become an advocate for deeper psychological assessment in football, and in an interview with The Guardian, he expressed regret that fans, the media, and even coaching staff often overlook non-verbal cues and gestures that can reveal critical insights into a player’s mindset. Amankwah illustrates his point with a telling example: a striker blasts a shot from 20 meters into the stands. Forty-five seconds later, a teammate gives him a pat on the back. "That invisible gesture says a lot about the player’s mentality," he emphasizes. Together with sports psychologist Geir Jordet, a professor at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Amankwah has analyzed thousands of hours of match footage from around the world. Their efforts have resulted in over 100,000 coded observations. Their goal? "To advise our partner clubs on recruitment, highlight under-the-radar players, or support—or challenge—emerging decisions based on our findings," explains Jordet. Their methodology has already attracted the interest of top-tier teams such as Bayern Munich, Brighton, and the England national team under Thomas Tuchel.
Brief
Bayern Munich are one of the teams using the method based on the study of players' non-verbal messages developed by Yaw Amankwah / ©Icon Sport