Everyone on social media claims to be an expert. Sometimes they might be right.
Serie A side Como 1907 clearly thought so, hiring 20-year-old Felix Johnston as a first-team scout. Until recently Johnston made Chelsea-focused content on X, highlighting and analysing the club’s brightest academy prospects. Now he helps identify players for a team managed by former Chelsea, Arsenal and Spain midfielder Cesc Fàbregas.
“It’s been a long journey,” Johnston told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Monday Night Club. He said a friend urged him to join Twitter during lockdown because “that’s where everyone is talking about football.” He began taking it seriously, built a following and found his niche in covering the Chelsea academy.
“I fell in love with watching the academy games, seeing the young players come through. It was what I was known for,” he added. As Chelsea shifted toward a youth-focused transfer strategy, Johnston started doing his own scouting, staying up late to watch players such as Kendry Paez at the Under-17 World Cup and Estevao, and uncovering talents of his own. A little recognition, including from people inside the game, turned a passion into a realistic path.
Things accelerated over the past six months. In April he was hired by Danish club Vejle as a scouting consultant, and at the end of July Como contacted him. “The director of recruitment reached out to me on Twitter saying he liked what I was tweeting and that he would like to do an internship and find some modern, younger scouts to bring into the club,” Johnston said. After completing the internship, nine weeks later he was offered the job.
Johnston is combining the role with university studies in Milan. The director who hired him previously led data at AZ Alkmaar and is very data-focused. Johnston’s job is to review players identified by data, watch them on the eye and write reports. “I look at the players they ask me to look at. But it’s an all-encompassing role, not restricted by any region or position,” he said.
Typically he watches five full matches to compile an initial report, though that can vary. “If they play for a low-possession side and they haven’t really touched the ball, then I’ll need to watch more just for more evidence,” he explained.
Johnston’s route into professional scouting is unconventional, but Como describe themselves as a “very forward-thinking club” eager to bring in new talent. The approach appears to be working: Como sit seventh in just their second year back in Serie A.
Johnston’s top tip for the future is 16-year-old Deinner Ordóñez, a centre-back at Independiente del Valle in Ecuador—the same academy that produced Moisés Caicedo. “They’ve had a lot of talents and he’s very talented,” he said.
From now on Johnston’s analyses and opinions will be sent to Fàbregas and the Como recruitment team rather than the social media masses.
