The very first Talent Development Summit by skills.lab brought together a diverse group of innovative minds from across the world of football.
Over the course of three days at the Anton Paar Technology Center in Graz, leading professionals from clubs and associations shared insights on how to identify, develop and promote young talent in football. With a focus on data-driven strategies and state-of-the-art technology, the summit provided a platform to explore how talent development can drive both sporting and economic success.
Tilman Tacke of McKinsey & Company set the scene for all the discussions that followed, with his insights into aligning sporting decisions with club management strategies. This was followed by a panel discussion with Jochen Sauer, Director of Youth Development and Campus at FC Bayern, who explored the club’s approach to developing talent for a global platform. Markus Schopp, now sporting director and coach at LASK, shared his perspective on player development based on years of coaching experience.
Central and Eastern Europe was another focus, with Tomasz Zahorski, CEO of Legia Training Center, and SK Slavia Praha’s Sporting Director Jiří Bílek highlighting the importance of infrastructure in developing top national talent. Insights from Roberto Niccolai (Head of Academy Team Performance, Atalanta BC) and Petr Hurych (Academy Director, SK Slavia) showed how both clubs are innovating to optimize the transition from academy to first team.
In the afternoon, the spotlight shifted to the U.S., namely to the COPA Soccer Training Center, where CEO Mark Hall and General Manager Charlie Campbell detailed how COPA is reshaping talent identification and development outside of the traditional club structure.
Hands-on insights came from Oskar Kretzinger of FC Bayern’s Innovation Center, who demonstrated how the club focuses on individual player development using the skills.lab Arena. His example of Aleksandar Pavlovic—who moved from the youth team to the first squad and the national team—showed the effectiveness of their personalized development strategies.
TSG Hoffenheim’s data-driven approach to talent identification was also in focus, as Jan Spielmann (CEO of TSG Research Lab) discussed how the club uses technology to measure biological age and assess psychological resilience. Their academy’s success stories illustrate how these advanced techniques pay off in practice.
The first day concluded with a broader look at talent development from a national perspective, as Günter Kreissl of the ÖFB and Marc Ziegler of the DFB Academy explained how their associations nurture top talent. A visit to the skills.lab facilities in Wundschuh and an interview with Thomas Tebbich, CEO of SK Sturm Graz, capped off the day, where he discussed how the club has risen to challenge Red Bull Salzburg’s dominance through data-driven scouting.
Wednesday shifted focus to the Premier League, with presentations by Darren Ryan, Head of Player Development at Wolverhampton, and Alex Vinall, Lead Player Development & Methodology Analyst at Tottenham Hotspur, who discussed how their academies manage talent in a fiercely competitive environment. Former footballer Johnny Ertl led a panel discussion with Jonathan Hunter-Barrett (Academy Director at Wolves), Duncan Fearnhead (Academy Manager at Southampton FC), and Elliott Smith (Scouting Representative at Fulham FC), exploring the unique challenges English clubs face in talent development.
The final session provided an in-depth look at the collaboration between COPA and TSG Hoffenheim, as Barry McCabe (Director of Talent ID & Science at COPA Soccer Training Center) and David Künzler (Science & Innovation at TSG Hoffenheim) presented their assessment-based approach to talent identification in the U.S., further emphasizing the role of data-driven methods in modern football.
Throughout the summit, the discussions—both on stage and during breaks and side events—highlighted the dedication of clubs and associations to the future of football. It was a privilege to provide a platform for these valuable exchanges in Graz.
