A MANCHESTER United scout has left the club after 18 years.
Antonio Cruz is the latest to depart United’s once-bloated scouting network as the club continues to invest in AI data to aid their recruitment.
United recently advertised for a senior football data scientist whose input would be applied to their recruitment strategy.
Christopher Vivell, United’s director of recruitment, has been empowered over the past year and United’s network was whittled down to ten full-time scouts in the summer.
Cruz wrote on his Linkedin page: “After 18 years at Manchester United as an International Scout, the time has come for me to close this important chapter of my career.
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“Thank you to everyone who has been part of this journey.”
Cruz was responsible for first team scouting in Portugal and Spain and was tasked with providing thorough written and video-based reports.
He also collaborated with United’s first-team analysts when they played Portuguese teams in Europe.
Cruz was United’s first-team scout in Spain and Portugal from 2007, the year the club bought Nani and Anderson from Sporting Lisbon and Porto.
Since those deals, United have recruited only four senior Portuguese players – Bebe, Diogo Dalot, Bruno Fernandes, as well as the return of Cristiano Ronaldo.
Bebe joined in unusual circumstances in 2010 as Sir Alex Ferguson admitted he had never watched him play.
The winger, who made seven appearances for United, is widely regarded as one of the worst players to have ever played for the club.
Fernandes, a January transfer window arrival in 2020, has been their best player since Ferguson retired in 2013 and Dalot moved to United as a 19-year-old in 2018 after then-manager Jose Mourinho took a shine to him.
United hijacked Manchester City’s move for Ronaldo in August 2021 after an intervention from Ferguson and former teammates.
The only other players United have recruited from Portugal during Cruz’s time are Marcos Rojo from Sporting, Victor Lindelof from Benfica and Alex Telles from Porto.
Lindelof lasted eight years at United until last summer but largely underwhelmed while Rojo and Telles were flops.
David de Gea was the standout Spanish addition by United in 2011. De Gea went on to break the club’s appearance record for a goalkeeper before he was released in 2013.
Juan Mata and Ander Herrera signed in 2014, free agent Victor Valdes joined United in 2015 and Sergio Reguilon was a deadline day loanee in 2023.
Reguilon’s season-long loan from Tottenham was terminated after only four months while Valdes, who only ever made one start, was transfer listed after a falling out with Louis van Gaal.
Mata and Herrera had respectable careers at United, the former spending eight-and-a-half years at Old Trafford and Herrera five.
United brought in high-profile stars from Real Madrid in Angel di Maria, Raphael Varane and Casemiro while Eric Bailly was Mourinho’s first signing from Villarreal in 2016.
Bailly was only 22 when United suddenly signed him yet the Madrid trio were established world-class players.
Di Maria moved for a then-British record £59.7million in 2014. Varane switched to United in 2021 and Casemiro did the following year.
The circumstances around the majority of the signings from Portugal and Spain and their high-profile identities raise questions about the input of United’s Iberian scout.
United were linked with a plethora of Portugal-based players, among them Miguel Veloso, Joao Moutinho, Rui Patricio, Nico Gaitan, Ezequiel Garay,
Mourinho wanted to buy Euro 2016 winner Renato Sanches before he ended up at Bayern Munich and a deadline-day move for Real Madrid left back Fabio Coentrao collapsed in 2013.
United had more success at academy level when they recruited Alvaro Carreras and Alejandro Garnacho from Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid in 2020.
Carreras, who never made his debut for United, is now back at Madrid as their starting left back and Garnacho secured a £40m move to Chelsea in the summer.
Portuguese goalie Joel Pereira joined the United academy in 2012 and debuted under Mourinho on the final day of the 2016-17 season against Crystal Palace.
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