Football fan who googled players to improve El Salvador national side given full-time scouting job

Daniel Brown

Football Manager players, take note

A fan has been rewarded with a full-time scouting job for El Salvador’s national team after he spent years searching the internet for players to help improve the country’s football team.

Hugo Alvarado has been made El Salvador’s first full-time scout after spending more than 10 years searching for eligible players after becoming frustrated with the team’s performance in games and competitions.

“When I started, I was using search terms like ‘footballer Salvadorian mother’,” Alvarado told BBC World Service.

“Whenever I saw an image that resembled a Hispanic or Latino guy, I would open it and look at the name.

“Sometimes I found articles where they mentioned where their parents were from and in other cases I would reach out to them through social media and ask them.

“One of my biggest finds was Steve Purdy [who had played for 1860 Munich in Germany].

“There’s nothing Salvadorian about that name but I had read some stuff about him and got hold of him on Facebook and we started talking.”

Hace casi 11 años. Despedía a @Spurdy25 en LAX rumbo a ES para su primera convocatoria a @LaSelecta_SLV espero despedir a muchos más este año! #TBT pic.twitter.com/KzZu5TreJM

— SelectaTalent (Hugo Alvarado) (@SelectaTalent) February 25, 2021

In El Salvador’s current squad, there are eight players that were discovered by Alvarado.

The 36-year-old, who currently lives in California after emigrating to the US when he was 12, is understandably proud of seeing the players feature for their national side.

“To me it was just that I wanted to help the national team,” said Alvarado.

“But when I had, a couple of them told me, ‘I wouldn’t have been able to play against [Lionel] Messi and Argentina or [Andres] Iniesta or [Gerard] Pique if it wasn’t for what you did for me’.

“That was the moment when I almost broke down in tears because I never really thought about it.

“I never paused [before] to hear from those players and what I did for their careers and experiences, to be able to play against the top teams and world class players.”

The Central American country last qualified for a World Cup in 1982, but have made a decent start to their 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign and secured a 1-0 win against Panama on Friday (October 8).

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