Football Data Scientist

Builds models to support recruitment, performance and injury decisions.

Do you need a qualification?

Strongly preferred Most employers expect a qualification.

Clubs expect strong quantitative training, usually a degree in maths, computing, statistics or similar, alongside football knowledge. Public projects often decide interviews.

£40K to £100KUK pay, illustrative

3-6 yrstypical experience

3ways in

2next-step roles

Salary.

What the role involves

Build player-evaluation and match models
Create dashboards and tools for staff
Test model results with coaches

Ways in, with or without formal qualifications

Experience, knowledge and interests count in football. These routes are what people in this role commonly point to.

Self-built
Build a public football data portfolio
Use open and public football data to produce analysis, models and visualisations that you can show. A well-explained project proves skill without any certificate.
Experience
Software, data or product background
Football tech companies and clubs hire developers, data engineers and product managers who then learn the game.
Experience
Career change from law, finance, tech or marketing
Clubs and governing bodies hire professionals from other industries into legal, finance, data, marketing and operations roles.

Qualifications and licences

Employers commonly ask for one or more of these.

Short course
Data & Analytics Courses (SQL, Python, Machine Learning)
Short courses and certificates in data skills. Their value comes from the projects you complete with them, especially football-based projects.
Degree
Performance Analysis or Sports Analytics Degree
Degrees designed for sports analysts, mixing video analysis, statistics and coaching knowledge. Helpful for analyst roles but not the only door.
Degree
Degree in Any Subject
Many football employers ask for a degree in any subject as a screening requirement for graduate-level jobs. The subject matters less than evidence of skills and football involvement.

Skills and knowledge

Tools you may use

Where this role is found

Where this role leads

Head of Analysis
Helpful
Leads performance, opposition and data analysis across the club.
Football Tech Product Manager
Strongly preferred
Guides the development of football software and data products.

Common stepping stones into this role

Pay and context by region

Illustrative estimates scaled from a UK baseline. Check local job adverts and union or association data.

Region	Indicative pay	Football structure
United Kingdom	£40K to £100K GBP	Premier League, EFL Championship, League One and League Two, then the National League system and a deep grassroots pyramid.
Spain	€37K to €94K EUR	LaLiga EA Sports and LaLiga Hypermotion, then Primera Federación and regional leagues.
Germany	€47K to €120K EUR	Bundesliga, 2.
Italy	€37K to €94K EUR	Serie A, Serie B, Serie C and the Serie D amateur tier.
France	€40K to €99K EUR	Ligue 1, Ligue 2, National and regional leagues, with a highly developed training-centre system.
United States & Canada	$65K to $160K USD	MLS, NWSL and USL pro tiers, a pay-to-play youth model, and a large college (NCAA, NAIA, USports) football system that doubles as a career route.
Brazil	R$98K to R$240K BRL	Série A to D, state championships and an intense youth system that sells many players abroad.
Saudi Arabia & the Gulf	SAR 220K to SAR 540K SAR	Professional leagues backed by major state investment, with fast-growing academies and a strong demand for international staff.
India	₹1.1M to ₹2.8M INR	The Indian Super League and I-League sit above state leagues.
Nigeria & West Africa	₦16M to ₦40M NGN	Domestic leagues feed a strong export route to European clubs, with many private academies and scouting networks.