What is a player request in football recruitment?
A player request is a club stating the position it needs to fill and the terms it can offer, so that agents and players can respond with candidates. It is the recruitment equivalent of a job advert: position, level, age range, salary and contract terms, written down once instead of described over the phone twenty times.
On this page
What a complete request contains
- The position, and often the specific profile within it, since a target man and a channel runner are not the same signing.
- The level, meaning the standard the player is expected to have played at.
- The age range, which is frequently a hard rule rather than a preference.
- Passport or nationality requirements, because foreign slots are limited.
- The salary, stated as net or gross, and what comes with it: bonuses, accommodation, an allowance, flights.
- The contract, its length and whether the move is permanent or a loan.
Why writing it down changes the outcome
An unwritten requirement travels badly. By the time it has passed through three agents it has lost the age band and the budget, which is why a club that mentions needing a left back receives profile after profile, many of them ineligible before anyone looks.
A written request is testable. A player either meets the passport rule or he does not. He either falls in the age band or he does not. So whoever reads the candidates can see at once who meets the rules and who misses one, and which one, instead of finding out on the phone.
Who posts them
Clubs, and agents acting on a club's behalf. An agent holding a mandate to fill a position will often post the request himself, then work through the candidates that come back, including players represented by other agents.
How a request works on FTBL Exchange
- A club, or an agent acting for one, posts the position, the salary and whether it is net or gross, the contract length and its rules, each marked as a must-have or a preference.
- The club is never named on a request.
- Agents propose the players they represent, and players can apply for themselves.
- No rule stops a proposal. Every rule is shown before a player is put forward, and a player who misses a must-have still reaches the club, in a separate group with the rule he misses named.
- Whoever posted the request, a club or an agent, sees every proposal on it with the player's full CV, and can reveal the proposer's WhatsApp number with a tap. Every reveal is recorded.
- The club sees whether a player's wage fits its budget, never the wage figure itself.
- A player's scouting report appears once his Wyscout record has been uploaded, by an admin or by his agent.
- Every account is approved by a person before it opens, and contact details on a player's CV are shown to approved accounts.
Post the position. Agents propose the player.
Say what you need once: the position, the salary, the contract length and your rules. Your club is never named. Free, with no subscription.
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Questions people also ask
Is a request public?
It depends on the platform. The requirement can be public while the club stays anonymous, which lets a club recruit without signalling its weakness to the market. On FTBL Exchange the club is never named. The board of requests opens to an account once a person has approved it, and whoever posted a request can also share it as a public link.
What is the difference between a request and a scouting report?
A request describes what a club wants. A scouting report describes a player. One is demand, the other is supply.