SK Sturm Graz, founded in 1909, is one of Austria’s leading football clubs with a rich history. The club has won the championship four times and the national cup seven times. Sturm rose to international prominence around the turn of the millennium, culminating in a group win in the 2000-01 Champions League under coach Ivica Osim. Despite their glorious past, Sturm, based in the 300,000 population city of Graz, see themselves more in the role of challenger these days, especially against FC Red Bull Salzburg, who dominate Austria. Until 2024, Salzburg had won ten league titles in a row and eight cups in a decade. Sturm won two cups during that period. And finally, the league title in May 2024.
In the 2019/20 season, Sturm went through a difficult period in terms of their sporting performance. At that point, Sturm had waited eight years to participate in a European competition. Andreas Schicker, who was already the club’s chief scout, took over as sporting director in the spring of 2020. Just a few years after ending his playing career, he had taken on one of the most important jobs at one of the country’s most storied clubs. And he would soon have to prove his ability to spot talent and convince them of the long-term plan in Graz.
From the very beginning of his time in charge, Schicker emphasized the importance of signing players who fit into Sturm’s newly defined playing philosophy, pointing out that even one wrong transfer can have serious consequences, especially for a small club in international terms. The first step was taken in the summer of 2020 with the appointment of Christian Ilzer as the new head coach, who stands for dynamic, fast-paced and courageous football. On the pitch, Ilzer’s team will always look for the direct route forward with the ball and try to score quickly. This requires a lot of running and sprinting, both defensively and offensively, in order to switch quickly in both directions and create pressing and counter-pressing situations. Under Ilzer’s leadership, a game concept was developed that is used by all Sturm teams, from the youth teams to the first team. Together with the scouting department and in close cooperation with Ilzer, sporting director Schicker was able to create specific player profiles and to strategically build the squad according to the club’s philosophy.
The plan for the first transfer window under the new sporting director was to create a framework of experienced players. As part of a major squad overhaul in the summer of 2020, Schicker signed Jon Gorenc Stankovic and Gregory Wüthrich, among others, who quickly established themselves as key players and have been key performers for several years now. This core group of players, which also includes Georgian international Otar Kiteishvili, was then to be strengthened with young, promising players in order to develop the team and generate high revenues in the transfer market. This strategy reflects the findings of two studies by “McKinsey & Company”, which highlight the importance of team value management and show that a team’s high market value also increases the likelihood of sporting success.
The first study (1) is based on the thesis that the value of a team can be increased in two fundamental ways: by managing existing players or by investing in new, established players on the transfer market. An analysis of the 69 most valuable European clubs in the period 2014 to 2019 shows that the value created by managing an existing team is twice as high as the value created by expensive investments in new players. This is true for both large and small clubs. Managing the existing team involves three things: developing the existing squad, integrating young players into the first team, and acquiring or releasing players for a sum above or below their market value. The ability to identify high-potential players, whether from within the club’s own youth program or from outside the club, is therefore essential to increasing a team’s market value and thus the likelihood of sporting success. According to the study, the market value of the first team is the key performance indicator of a football club.
The second study (2), from 2024, emphasizes that economic developments during the coronavirus pandemic have made team value management even more important. In addition, the introduction of additional financial regulations, such as Financial Fair Play, has placed restrictions on clubs to prevent them from spending beyond their means. Clubs that build better teams with a limited budget and a correspondingly higher market value have an even greater competitive advantage.
Since the summer of 2020, SK Sturm Graz under head coach Christian Ilzer has had a clear playing philosophy that allows the club to create detailed requirement profiles for player positions. These profiles cover four main areas: technique, tactics, physicality and character. (3) Based on these areas, the scouting team continuously monitors the market and feeds a database with potential candidates. Matches and training sessions are watched in person, especially to assess the character of potential signings. The fundamental goal in the transfer market is clear: to identify players with great potential as early as possible and to bring them to the club. “If we miss a step, we don’t stand a chance financially,” said Schicker in an interview in November 2023 (4). At the same time, foresight is required when planning the squad. If a player’s positive development indicates that he will leave, potential replacements should already be on the club’s radar, or even better, on their way to the first team via the second team.
Sturm knows exactly which player the team wants to scout for each position based on the established principles. And when a player is scouted, precision is required. So Sturm combines a good eye for talent with the broadest possible data base. However, the club does not want to rely solely on match data, as this does not provide precise information about a talent’s individual abilities. It is also not possible to compare match data, as it must always be viewed in context (competition, teammates, opponents).
Since 2020, Sturm has therefore also been working with the skills.lab systems from Anton Paar SportsTec. These systems make it possible to assess the performance of all current and potential new players. In the skills.lab Arena, the world’s most advanced football measurement and training system, all of the club’s players are regularly tested for their technical and cognitive skills. In addition, the data science team of Anton Paar SportsTec conducts detailed scientific analyses of the SK Sturm teams. Thanks to the objective comparative data, the club can optimize the transition from youth to academy to professional step by step. The data from the skills.lab Arena is used, for example, to decide whether a player should be scouted in the youth squads or promoted to the next higher team. The skills.lab Arena is therefore particularly suitable for developing the next generation of professionals – and for evaluating the performance of potential new signings in direct comparison with the existing squad.
Mohammed “Mo” Fuseini was one of several talents invited by SK Sturm for a trial in the winter of 2021/22. After training at the “Right To Dream Academy” in Ghana, the trial with Sturm was his first step on European soil. The then 19-year-old striker not only took part in regular training sessions, but also underwent in-depth assessments at the skills.lab Arena in order to precisely analyze his skills. The 45-minute internationally standardized performance test is available to all customers who work with skills.lab Arena and assesses technical and cognitive skills in game-like tasks. It is precisely this game-like exercise that ensures a high level of intrinsic motivation among players and thus provides club managers with even better results in data analysis.
As can be seen in the image above, Fuseini was measured and evaluated in two assessments using the following Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): passing accuracy, shooting accuracy, shooting speed, agility, ball control, dribbling, ball carrying, cognitive processing speed and visual perception. In terms of the key criteria for a striker, he outperformed the other candidates, particularly in terms of shooting accuracy, but also in terms of speed of movement and ball control. “Mo absolutely convinced us in training and in the tests in the skills.lab Arena,” said sporting director Schicker. Fuseini’s assessment and direct comparison with the first-team squad were key factors in the decision to sign him.
After quickly scoring his first goal for the second team and recording impressive statistics (12 goals and 7 assists in total), Fuseini also earned call-ups to the first team and the UEFA Europa League. Despite his success, Sturm were unable to guarantee Fuseini regular playing time due to a large number of players in attack and sent him on loan to Danish side Randers FC in January 2024, with an option to buy, where he continued to prove his goalscoring prowess with eight goals in ten appearances. During his time in Graz, Fuseini increased his market value from 50,000 euros to 700,000, a fourteen-fold increase. In the summer, Fuseini was transferred to Union Saint Gilloise in Belgium for 2 million euros as a result of his strong performances in Denmark.
In recent years, Sturm has built a reputation as an excellent developer of attacking talent through this combination of good instincts for talent and data-driven development opportunities, which has been underscored by the profitable sale of several players. In the spring of 2023, videos of Amady Camara, a member of the Mali U-17 national team, sparked interest in Graz. After being invited to a trial session, the speedy forward demonstrated his potential in both team training and an assessment in the skills.lab Arena.
In a direct comparison with other trialists (see picture above), the player showed advantages in the areas of shooting accuracy, shooting speed, agility – and especially in the area of first touch. After a two-and-a-half month trial, Camara was signed and initially assigned to the second team, where he immediately impressed with his speed and goal-scoring ability, and was also able to work on areas of greater potential such as dribbling and passing accuracy. Although not originally intended, Camara performed so well that he was quickly promoted to the first team. In his first international appearance for Sturm Graz, he scored a spectacular goal against Slovan Bratislava in the UEFA Europa Conference League.
The striker is doing well, despite the language barrier. “He speaks neither English nor German, only French. But he is still very well integrated and feels comfortable,” said coach Ilzer after Camara’s European Cup goal, adding: “He’s a player we didn’t necessarily expect to get in the summer. But we recognized early on that he would be a player that Sturm would have a lot of fun with.” (5) A data-driven scouting success that can also be seen in his market value. The Transfermarkt platform valued Camara at €100,000 when he arrived in Graz; in June 2024, he will be worth €2 million. An enormous increase that can also be attributed to the skills.lab Arena as a scouting tool.
As the examples of Mo Fuseini and Amady Camara show, the assessments in the skills.lab Arena give SK Sturm a decisive advantage in the scouting process. By comparing players with each other, the club knows the actual technical and cognitive abilities of a player and can make faster and clearer decisions in the transfer market. In addition, the assessments clearly show the areas in which the player still needs to work. At the same time, the tests and individual training sessions in the skills.lab arena also serve as a continuous scouting process for the club’s own academy. Every pass, every shot and every dribble in the skills.lab Arena provides a large amount of data every week, which the sporting director can use to continuously evaluate the development of the Graz club’s young talents.
The promotion of the second team to the 2. Bundesliga in 2022 serves as a bridge to professional football in the top league. Due to the increased quality in the first team, it is currently difficult for many players from the club’s youth academy to make the jump. In recent years, however, Sturm players have moved on to other clubs in their respective countries’ top leagues, including Paul Komposch and Christoph Lang to TSV Hartberg and Dardan Shabanhaxh. Komposch’s market value rose from €200,000 to €1 million, Lang, who now plays for SK Rapid, from €500,000 to €1.8 million, and Shabanhaxhaj, who now plays for Rubin Kazan, from €250,000 to €900,000.
One of the club’s medium-term goals is to provide even more targeted support for its own academy. To this end, SK Sturm is planning to build new academy facilities with several training pitches in the south of Graz in the next few years. This investment in infrastructure will be made possible in part by the revenues generated from the players that have been scouted to perfection over the past four years.
SK Sturm has a clear sporting plan for 2024 with a clear vision of the squad. With the help of skills.lab’s technology, previously undiscovered talents can be accurately measured and specifically developed for the first team. This positive development is also reflected in sporting success. In the past four years, Sturm has reached the group stage of the UEFA Europa League three times and the round of 16 in the UEFA Europa Conference League in 2023/24. The team has established itself as the second strongest team in the league behind FC Red Bull Salzburg and is challenging the league champions for the title.
The maximization of market value through the development of existing players, the affordable signing of external talent and the targeted promotion of the club’s own young players is impressive. The club’s market value has more than quadrupled from 16.7 million euros to 76.3 million euros since the start of the 2000/2001 season, when the new sporting and coaching management took over. A comparison with Salzburg shows that at the beginning of the era of sporting director Schicker, Sturm accounted for around 15 percent of Salzburg’s squad value, and four years later for around 35 percent. Based on the findings of the “McKinsey & Company” study from September 2020 (6), this suggests that Sturm has also come closer to Salzburg in terms of sport. As the 2023/24 season shows, this is indeed the case. Sturm knocked Salzburg out of the Austrian Cup for the second year in a row and achieved an even bigger goal at the end of the season. After ten consecutive league titles for Salzburg, the 2023/24 Austrian championship was also won by Sturm.
(1) The value pitch – The importance of team value management – McKinsey & Company – 2020 – https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/the-value-pitch-the-importance-of-team-value-management
(2) Translating budgets into quality: European football’s value frontier – 2024 – https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/translating-budgets-into-quality-european-footballs-value-frontier
(3) So funktioniert das schwarze Netzwerk (krone.at) – 2022 – https://www.krone.at/2854534
(4) Millionen für Sturm Graz: Manager Schicker und seine besondere Geschichte (kicker.at) – 2023 – https://www.kicker.at/millionen-fuer-sturm-graz-manager-schicker-und-seine-besondere-geschichte-980068/artikel
(5) Camara? “Er hat eine große Zukunft bei Sturm” (laola1.at) – 2024 – https://www.laola1.at/de/red/fussball/europa-conference-league/news/amady-camara—er-hat-eine-grosse-zukunft-bei-sturm-/
(6) The value pitch – The importance of team value management – McKinsey & Company – 2020 – https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/the-value-pitch-the-importance-of-team-value-management
