Football Manager in Real Football

Real clubs have used Football Manager's player database for scouting since Everton licensed it in Nov 2008, and Sports Interactive later sold the data to professional clubs through Prozone. The database behind FM27 comes from about 1,400 researchers, a network that began with fanzine writers in the 1990s.

Football Manager's database is used by real clubs: in Nov 2008 Everton signed an exclusive deal giving David Moyes and his staff the game's data on more than 370,000 players and staff, which Guinness World Records lists as the first videogame licensed by a soccer club for recruiting, and in 2014 Sports Interactive licensed it to Prozone's recruitment platform for professional clubs. The numbers come from about 1,400 researchers (Nov 2023) who rate players around the world, and that same network built the database in Football Manager 27.

Quick facts

First club deal	Everton, Nov 2008 (Football Manager 2009)
Data in that deal	More than 370,000 players and staff, about 20,000 teams
Professional platform	Prozone Recruiter, from Aug 2014
Researchers	About 1,400 (Nov 2023)
Partner club	Brighton & Hove Albion, an eighth season in 2026/27
Network began	With club fanzine writers, around Championship Manager 2 (1995)

Sources: VideoGamer, Nov 2008; Engadget, Aug 11, 2014; SEGA, Nov 6, 2023; Football Manager, Oct 6, 2026; PC Gamer, May 26, 2018.

Where the data comes from

The first Championship Manager games took their figures from the Rothmans Yearbook. Around Championship Manager 2, in 1995, the team began asking club fanzine writers for information, and it was the first game whose player abilities were "scouted" by the studio. By 2018 the network covered about 2,200 clubs in 51 countries in depth plus about 2,000 lower-league clubs, which Retro Gamer called "the largest single player scouting network in any sport". SEGA gave about 1,400 researchers in Nov 2023. FM27's data in the Free Trial and Launch Preview build may not yet reflect real-world data, SI warns; the final database comes with the release on Nov 10, 2026.

Everton, 2008

Everton's Nov 2008 deal gave David Moyes and his coaches the Football Manager database of more than 370,000 players and staff across about 20,000 teams in more than 50 countries, compiled by over 1,000 scouts. Miles Jacobson said then that SI had "known for a while that teams use the game to research certain players". Guinness World Records lists Football Manager 2009 as the first videogame licensed by a soccer club for recruiting purposes.

Prozone and professional scouting

In Aug 2014 SI licensed its database to Prozone's Recruiter platform for professional clubs; Engadget named Sam Allardyce and Ronald Koeman as managers who would use it. In 2017 SI's head of business development, Tom Markham, told PC Gamer that a Champions League club and a Premier League club used SI data, that MLS clubs leaned on it for bargains in Central America, and that Ray Houghton used it at the Football Association of Ireland to find Irish-eligible players. SI then had an average of 1,300 scouts.

People who came from the game

Andre Villas-Boas's love of Championship Manager and Football Manager "contributed directly to his role as chief scout at Chelsea", Retro Gamer reported. The series also inspired a 2014 documentary film. Beyond that, stories of real players found through the game are common online but rarely sourced; this page lists only what reputable outlets have reported.

Club partnerships today

1:10:11 SI also works with clubs and football bodies directly. Brighton & Hove Albion renewed for an "eighth successive season" in 2026/27, and partners in the Football Manager 26 era included Manchester City, Leyton Orient, Vancouver Whitecaps and Angel City FC, plus deals with FIFPRO and FIFA. FM27's new Shuffle Draft mode was made with FIFAe, and its licensed leagues are on Leagues and Licenses. In the clip Brighton head coach Fabian Hürzeler joins SI's FM27 livestream.

Wonderkids and the real world

Football Manager's wonderkids can shape how real players are seen. An SI developer told FourFourTwo in Oct 2026 that "very often we're maybe influencing the real football world" when it comes to wonderkids. FM27's provisional list from the Launch Preview is on Wonderkids.

Frequently asked questions

Do real football clubs use Football Manager for scouting? Yes. Everton licensed the database in Nov 2008, and from 2014 Sports Interactive sold its data to professional clubs through Prozone. The same research network built FM27's database.

How many scouts work on Football Manager? About 1,400 researchers in Nov 2023, SEGA said, up from about 1,000 in 2008. No FM27-era figure has been published as of Nov 1, 2026.

Which club first used the Football Manager database? Everton, in Nov 2008, under David Moyes. Guinness World Records lists it as the first videogame licensed by a soccer club for recruiting.

Has anyone got a football job through Football Manager? Retro Gamer reported that Andre Villas-Boas's love of Championship Manager and Football Manager helped him become Chelsea's chief scout. Other stories exist, but few are reported by reputable outlets.

Is the FM27 database accurate? It is built by Sports Interactive's researchers, but the Launch Preview data may not yet match the real world, SI says, and FM27's final database comes with the Nov 10, 2026 release.