Roberto Firmino - A fairytale from Absurdistan

Lutz, what title should we call you by?

Lutz Pfannenstiel: Officially I’m responsible for “International Relations”. I always say that I’m pretty much an agent in Her Majesty’s secret service (laughs). Obviously I’m on the road a lot, away at the major tournaments where I watch players of interest. But I haven’t been doing weekend scouting in the conventional sense for years now. I’ve spent more than long enough throwing myself around on some of the worst football pitches in the world!

Recently, you were a guest on a radio show in London, where you were discussing scouting. And you talked about Roberto Firmino, whom TSG discovered when he was playing in the second tier of Brazilian football.

Pfannenstiel: And I told them that, given Firmino was playing in the Brazilian second division at the time, he was pretty expensive, but we were totally convinced by him. Rightly so! (laughs)

Another guest on the TALKSPORT show was Miles Jacobsen, the creator and chief executive of the well-known and popular computer game Football Manager.

Pfannenstiel: I met Miles Jacobsen for the first time - he was a nice guy, incidentally. He explained that Premier League clubs quite often use the data collected for the computer game. That was new to me as well, I wouldn’t have thought that myself.

But we thought that TSG discovered Roberto Firmino using this computer game? That’s what all the media reports suddenly said, anyway.

Pfannenstiel: Yes, that was mad. I’ve played football on all six continents, but apparently there’s a seventh by the name of Absurdistan. I never breathed a single word about the Football Manager game during the whole interview - I’ve never even played the game. To be honest, I had never even heard of it! At least now I know that such a game actually exists. 

So what are the differences in scouting methods nowadays?

Pfannenstiel: Today, scouting has changed purely by means of the influx of data being used. At TSG, we have already been doing that on a fantastic level with our main sponsor, SAP. We don’t need any computer games. And at the end of the day, it’s really simple - you always have to watch the players out on the pitch, with your own eyes. 

But the story about you discovering Firmino using the game are doing the rounds on the internet now. Some major news websites, including those abroad, have taken on this so-called story.

Pfannenstiel: It really is unbelievable. I really wish that someday, someone might write that I won the World Goalkeeper of the Year award twice. Then maybe I’d have 100 hits on the internet if you searched my name on Google.

Clearly each one is just picking up the story blindly from the next one...

Pfannenstiel: It’s worse than when we were at school. Incredible. It would be enough for just one person to listen to the whole interview. That’s out on the internet as well. But I guess fairytales sell better than real life.

And what’s next for you?

Pfannenstiel: I’m off to go and play Football Manager again. But be warned - I’m only joking!