The world's biggest clubs were all aware of the teenage sensation turning heads for Universidad de Chile, the one dubbed his generation's Alexis Sanchez. "When we signed Dario Osorio, it was not because no-one knew about him," Kristian Kjaer, technical director at Midtjylland, tells BBC Sport. Osorio was on the radar of AC Milan, RB Leipzig, Salzburg and a number of other English and German clubs before he left Santiago for Denmark at the age of 19.
It was a carefully considered pathway. After three seasons in Scandinavia, the winger joined Crystal Palace on loan this summer with a £24m option to buy which would make him the most expensive sale in Danish Superliga history. Midtjylland, where Brentford owner Matthew Benham was a majority stakeholder between 2014 and 2023, are renowned as one of the most innovative clubs in Europe for their use of analytics - from set-pieces to smart recruitment.
"We work on both pathways," explains Kjaer. "We have subjective scouting, more classic video scouting, live scouting, a network, people we trust in the club and also our partners. And then we have the data scouting.
"And Dario Osorio, we were aware of him long before we signed him." From feet-on-the-ground to the increasing availability of footage, data analytics and artificial intelligence, Premier League clubs - whether buying direct from source or tracking players like Osorio's progress - have a large proportion of the world's emerging talent covered. "That hidden gem kind of thing almost does not exist any more in football," says Kjaer. "Sometimes it does, but it's rare." "You would put this period as one of the most transformational in talent ID and recruitment," explains Sam Turner, head of operations at scouting and development platform Eyeball.
Clubs can now obtain an incredible level of detail on players across the globe before they have even made a senior appearance. Eyeball, for example, was founded five years ago to focus on those predominantly aged 13 to 21. It is used by more than 60% of clubs in Europe's top five leagues, and a majority of Premier League sides, for access to more than 400,000 young players across 42 global markets from Europe to Africa and Latin America.
Winger Malick Yalcouye, a new 20-year-old star at Brighton, was tracked on the system since developing at Ivorian side ASEC Mimosas, likewise Bazoumana Toure, who is now at Newcastle. The breadth of coverage is highlighted by other recent moves - Josue Caicedo left Ecuador's LDU Quito for Barcelona, Mustapha Nyassi swapped Gambia's Real de Banjul for Copenhagen and Nour Ashraf joined Leipzig from Egypt's ENPPI. "The availability of data and footage has prompted a change in methodology," says Turner.
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