Anderlecht - Jean Kindermans is the technical director of the RSC Anderlecht youth Academy for almost 15 years. Under his management, football stars like Romelu Lukaku (Man Utd), Youri Tielemans (Leicester FC) and Dennis Praet (Sampdoria) were formed.
How did the club exchanged sporting information in the past?
In 2005 the reporting of games and player evaluations were done verbally or using paper sheets. We wanted to structure this process a bit more by working more in a digital way.
How important is this 'digital' factor for you?
By working on one and the same digital platform you can centralize all different activities of the academy. You can always rely on this platform and build up a club history. The platform allows you to gain more experience and to look backwards so you can predict the future a little bit better.
RSC Anderlecht is always looking for new football talents. How does PSD supports you in this mission?
Thanks to ProSoccerData, scouting has become much easier because all these processes happen in a more structured way: You can impose certain obligations on scouts, you can standardize certain processes, you can plan scouting missions,... all of this within the same environment.
For us this was clearly a step forward because you can collect collect player information in different ways: through a written document, photos and game images. This is all registered and can be consulted during a scouting meeting.
In what way is PSD being used to take sporting decisions?
I have always said that data needs to support what we can see, experience and know. Our brain capacity is limited and we simply can't recall the performance of thousands of players. All of this information is now centralized and these scouting reports are now part of the decision process within the club. It has led to many successes within our youth academy in the past.
Which functionality in PSD do you use the most?
There are many functionalities that I use depending on which role I have at which moment. Monday I consult the game reports, Tuesday I read the scouting reports to prepare a meeting and Wednesday I check player histories to determine formation compensations. So there are lots of functions of which also the video library: the past years we have recorded a lot of game & training images. I use many functionalities on a daily base so it's hard to say which function I use most frequently (laughing).
RSC Anderlecht
Jean Kindermans
With PSD, you can always rely on this platform and build up a club history