Tournament Scouts Decide ‘Who Are the Best?’

15 June 2025

Armando Obispo, Ernest Poku, Dillan Hoogewerf, Kamal Deen Sulamana, and Abdelhak Nouri—just a few examples of “players of the tournament” at the International Marveld Tournament. Every year, all players are assessed by a group of scouts from the organization who attentively watch every match and take notes from the sidelines. How do these men work? What do they pay attention to? How do they reach their final judgment? A look at their Saturday afternoon meeting provides more insight.

Approach

Before the tournament starts on Friday afternoon, Ivo Versteegen, Jos Heutinck, Bert Roeterdink, Tonny Tjoonk, Mike Peeters, and Wout Walterbos gather to discuss their approach. They then go their separate ways and don’t meet again until Friday evening after all the matches.
“On that first day, you often already get a pretty good idea of which outfield players and goalkeepers are contenders,” says Ivo. “We then go over our observations together and discuss what we’ve seen.”

A wide range of factors are taken into consideration during the selection process. A player needs to play a lot, be decisive, and is judged on coaching, decision-making speed (both in movement and in thinking), transitions, winning mentality, positive behavior towards teammates, opponents, and referees, quality of passing, dribbling and finishing, game intelligence—in short, many different aspects.

Warm Weather

On Saturday morning, the group reconvenes, and throughout the day they further refine the list of best outfield players and goalkeepers.
“You notice that as the day goes on, the energy levels drop and the quality becomes a bit lower,” Tonny points out. The warm weather undoubtedly played a significant role in this.

During the end-of-day meeting, it turns out that the men quickly reach agreement. The pool of potential winners has significantly narrowed.
“In principle, anyone can be named player or goalkeeper of the tournament,” says Bert, “but experience shows that the player of the tournament usually comes from one of the top four teams. You really have to be exceptionally good to win if your team doesn’t finish in the top four. By the end of the final, we inform the organization who the player of the tournament is, although it’s often clear even before the final.”

Transfer

It’s worth mentioning that the winner from two years ago is currently considered one of Barcelona’s top prospects. And recently it was announced that last year’s player of the tournament is transferring from Barcelona to Ajax.

A new feature introduced last year is the announcement of a “team of the tournament.” The scouts also discuss this, and there are still a few spots up for debate—but since the tournament lasts another whole day, there’s still plenty of time for the men to decide!