Sports Interactive is looking for avid Football Manager players to volunteer to join the ranks of our Assistant Researchers in a variety of territories and leagues across the world.
Interested parties need a keen interest in football, and (preferably) strong knowledge of their local clubs and leagues. You need to regularly watch first-team games and be the sort of person that devours any snippet of information about their club or domestic league, whether it’s a team’s financial status or their competition history.
You need to be prepared to watch youth and development sides (where possible) and have a desire to ensure that backroom staff and young players are represented as accurately as possible in the game. Assistant Researchers are expected to understand the inadequacies of the players, clubs and leagues they research and to be sensible about their skill level.
Being an Assistant Researcher is not a paid role, but it can be very fulfilling, as attested by our Wolverhampton Wanderers researcher Dave Azzopardi: "It's great to see all my hard work in a game that thousands of people play every day,” he says. “Even just interacting with other Assistant Researchers is intriguing, as you learn the way they watch football and how they interpret what they see into Football Manager."
Many Assistant Researchers have shown that the role can also lead to other opportunities within the world of football. Some have gone on to scouting roles at clubs such as Hertha BSC, Watford and Plymouth, some work with football agencies and data analytics companies, while others have used their experience to move into sports journalism and media. Another common progression is to Head Researcher, with the vast majority of people working in this role having started as an Assistant Researcher. Others have gone on to permanent roles within Sports Interactive, in areas such as QA and Research.
It is a basic requirement that any applicant is a regular FM player, someone who understands how the game and its data works. You will also need basic IT skills to operate our online database and to keep in contact with the relevant Head Researcher throughout the season.
If you are interested in learning more about the role and the application process, as well as seeing a full list of current available clubs, leagues and nations, please head over to the Research and Scouting section of our community forums.