Luan Faria, Head of Youth Scouting at São Paulo, speaking to ge, describes São Paulo’s “meia confecção” strategy:

We target players who have already spent time developing at other clubs, particularly those with promising performance indicators and experience at major academies who were not given enough opportunities. Many can be brought in without a transfer fee. We identify their potential, take a chance on them, and the approach has produced results. […]

When I arrived, São Paulo did not have a proper market-analysis process. Players were often signed because someone had seen them in a single match, a coach liked them, or an executive thought they looked promising. There was no systematic evaluation designed to reduce recruitment mistakes. […]

We previously lacked the budget even to send scouts on routine trips. Information about players came from outside sources, often without enough evidence to evaluate it properly. Agents were constantly offering players of different standards, and decisions sometimes had to be made from videos lasting only half a minute. That created an enormous risk of mistakes. Today, when a player is offered, we already have detailed scouting reports that decision-makers can consult. […]

If you look at clubs with a financial advantage over us, their chance of error is very high because they are signing all the time. Players have ups and downs.

Flamengo made a move we could not compete with, but soon they sign another player and the boy who was a priority goes to the back of the queue. That is where we stay alert.

That was Djhordney’s case. Palmeiras got him, but they sign players every three months. He began to be left on the sidelines for several reasons. We began talking to his agent, found Palmeiras would not exercise the purchase option, and went to Novorizontino to arrange a loan.