For 22 years, Matthieu Bideau has been scrutinizing the youth competitions of France in search of the rare pearl for FC Nantes. After six years as a recruiter in the Ile-de-France region, he has been the head of recruitment for the last 16 years at the Youth academy of the club with eight championship titles. "When I started, I focused mainly on the football potential of the players, but I realized over time, the importance of human potential in their success: "What son, what student, what teammate is this youngster?" These moral skills can be detected and are essential to integrate into a team". But how do you go about detecting them? "As a recruiter, we don't have a lot of information... We can try to identify energy and values during meetings with the family, but the relationship is often biased. We have noticed over time that if academic results have little correlation to a player's intelligence, the assessments often reveal human potential." Finally, some additional and essential information for a recruiter: "We can influence the technical or athletic qualities of a young person in training, but we will never change their temperament!"
Brief
Matthieu Bideau (right, with director Samuel Fenillat) has been in charge of recruitment for FC Nantes' training centre for sixteen years / ©DR