From Haaland to Guardiola: How Football Became an Industry of Opportunity

Football is no longer an industry focused only on competition on the pitch. It now includes talent development, technology, performance analysis, club management, and entrepreneurship, with many opportunities beginning as real problems that can be turned into scalable solutions.

From Haaland and Szoboszlai to Guardiola and Manchester City, the evolution of modern football reveals an industry that extends beyond the pitch into talent development, analysis, technology, and sports entrepreneurship.

When Erling Haaland joined Manchester City in the summer of 2022, he arrived after a journey that had taken him through several stages in Austria and Germany. Haaland attracted attention during his time at Red Bull Salzburg before moving to Borussia Dortmund and eventually Manchester City. On a different path, Dominik Szoboszlai came through the Red Bull Salzburg system, making his professional debut with FC Liefering before reaching Salzburg's first team, then moving to RB Leipzig and later Liverpool.

These journeys are not simply stories of players who reached the highest level. They also reveal how modern football has expanded beyond competition on the pitch. Behind every player, coach, and club lies a wider ecosystem built around talent development, data analysis, academy management, technology, marketing, fan experience, and investment in sports-related projects.

As this ecosystem has expanded, so has the nature of the opportunities within it. Working in sports no longer necessarily means looking for a position at a club or federation. An opportunity can begin with a real problem within the industry, then turn knowledge and experience into a solution that can be developed into a business.

Haaland and Szoboszlai: When Talent Development Becomes a System

Szoboszlai's journey offers a clear example of the gradual development of a player through different stages. He made his professional debut with FC Liefering in Austria's second division before making his first-team debut for Red Bull Salzburg in May 2018. Around three years later, he moved to RB Leipzig.

Haaland, meanwhile, joined Red Bull Salzburg in January 2019 and played for the club during the 2019–20 season before moving to Borussia Dortmund in January 2020. He then joined Manchester City in July 2022.

The important point is not to search for a single “formula” for producing elite players, but to understand the value of building a development pathway: identifying talent, developing it, and creating the right environment for the player at each stage.

This idea is not limited to major clubs. Managing an academy, developing a training methodology, or building a performance-analysis tool are all examples of needs that can become opportunities when approached from a different perspective.

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Guardiola and Manchester City: When Knowledge Becomes Value

The role of a modern football coach is no longer limited to what happens during a match. The knowledge a coach develops around training, performance analysis, and player development can become part of a wider ecosystem that extends into education, data analysis, talent development, and sports content.

This can be seen in the case of Pep Guardiola, who works within the Manchester City structure, part of City Football Group, which was established in May 2013 and operates through a global network of football clubs and sports projects. The group describes the sharing of expertise in areas such as talent development, fan experience, commercial opportunities, performance, and technology as part of its wider model, while maintaining each club's identity and relationship with its local community.

The same approach can be seen across the group's academies, where data and scouting expertise are combined in talent identification, alongside long-term work on developing players and coaches and using technology in training and analysis.

This is where expertise can extend beyond the individual who possesses it. The knowledge developed by a coach, performance analyst, or sports professional can be organized, developed, and applied in different contexts. This is one of the points where football and entrepreneurship intersect: having expertise is one thing; turning that expertise into scalable value is another.

From the Analysis Room to the Market: Where Does the Opportunity Begin?

In an industry of this scale, opportunities do not always begin with a groundbreaking idea. Sometimes, they start with a small and recurring problem.

A coach looking for a more efficient way to organize their work, an academy that needs a better system for monitoring players, a performance analyst searching for a more effective data tool, or a club looking to improve its fan experience—all of these needs can become starting points for a business idea.

But identifying a problem is only the beginning. Before building a product or service, it is necessary to understand who actually faces the problem, what value can be provided, and whether the proposed solution addresses a genuine market need.

This is where the difference between an idea and a business begins.

An idea identifies something that could be improved. A business requires a clear value proposition, a defined customer, a revenue model, and a way to test and improve the solution over time.

From Former Player to Sports Entrepreneur

Sports entrepreneurship is not limited to investors or business owners. A former player can turn their experience into an academy or educational project. A coach can transform their knowledge into a methodology or specialized service, while a performance analyst or sports marketer can develop solutions that address specific needs within the industry.

The value does not come from experience alone. It comes from the ability to organize that experience and turn it into a solution to a real problem. Years spent on the pitch, in the analysis room, or inside an academy can become the foundation for a product or service when they are connected to a clear need and a value that can be delivered to the market.

In this sense, entrepreneurial thinking becomes a natural extension of sports expertise. Experience gives you an understanding of the problem, but understanding the market helps you turn that knowledge into an opportunity.

An idea may begin with a simple observation on the pitch, a recurring problem inside an academy, or a need faced by a coach or player. Its real value emerges when that observation becomes a solution that can be tested, then developed into a model that can grow and reach a wider audience.

Perhaps the next opportunity in sports will not be found on the pitch at all, but in the problem that no one has found the right solution to yet.