http://www.safc.com/news/club-news/2013/june/safc-appoint-player-recruitment-team SAFC appoint player recruitment team Published: 10 June, 2013 by Kate Smith Club restructure player recruitment operation. Sunderland AFC has begun the process of restructuring its player recruitment operation, with the appointment of a Director of Football and new Chief Scout. Roberto De Fanti joins the club in the newly-created Director of Football role and Chief Scout Valentino Angeloni is welcomed to the Black Cats from Italian giants Inter Milan. De Fanti, who has many years of experience in football, has worked closely with Angeloni on player recruitment at both Udinese and Inter Milan and has an extensive network of contacts throughout the game. He also assisted with the appointment of the Clubâs Head Coach. Angeloni took up a scouting role with Torino in 2007, following the end of his playing career, which saw him make over 350 appearances in professional football. He then went on to spend four years with Udinese as part of their technical set up. During his time at the Italian club he discovered players such as Barcelonaâs Alexis Sanchez, who he signed as a 17 year old. He was appointed as FC Internazionaleâs Head of Scouting in March 2012. Work on the summer recruitment process has already commenced, with players Valentin Roberge, Adilson Tavares Varela (Cabral) and Modibo Diakité set to join the club in July. Sunderland AFC CEO, Margaret Byrne, said: âRoberto and Valentino bring with them a wealth of experience, knowledge and football contacts from across Europe and indeed the world and we are delighted to welcome them to Sunderland. âThe recruitment of players is of course key for any football club and Roberto and Valentino will work closely with the Head Coach and the Board to identify targets as we look to strengthen our squad for next season and beyond. âI would also like to extend our thanks to the President of Inter Milan, Massimo Moratti, who graciously agreed to allow Valentino to make the move to Sunderland.â
thi is fantastic news for us. for years we have been crying out for a decent scouting network ans for someone behind the schenes who has contacts all over the world. our previous scouts knew **** all about anything outside the uk and it has left us signing domestic based players for over the odds prices. there are a lot of great players out there who could improve us with much less of an outlay then a similer uk based player would cost us. these guys seem to have a good record of finding some gems and hopefully they can find us a couple as well
Only good for the club, whilst I admit this sounds about as legal as the 'Invest in Africa' sponsorship Couldnt care if it seems to be working! 2 middle aged and 1 young footballer in for nothing! filling some boots and helping with the options
