Three shrewd Leeds United signings helped ban club from British scouts – The Athletic

Looking to Scotland for recruitment has been a fruitful avenue for many clubs in England for some time, and some of Leeds’ academy investment has come through that part of the world.

Leeds’ three signings from Scottish clubs help trigger scouting ban

Athletic have now shared an investigation into the impact on youth research caused by Brexit regulations, which means clubs in England have now become more focused on players from Scotland than other nations.

Leeds are one of those clubs, making three under-18 signings from Scotland squads from July 2021 – all coming this season in the form of Celtic goalkeeper Rory Mahady and Aberdeen duo Josh McDonald and Lewis Pirie.

26 are named in the report who moved from Scotland to England before the age of 18, with another three of them previously on Leeds’ radar.

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An interesting report update shares the impact from the perspective of Scottish clubs, with one club in question imposing a ban on England scouts being able to attend matches for under 14s and below:

“But one club recently stopped Scottish scouts and agents from attending matches so they can’t talk to their players.

“Another major club has banned English scouts and agents from attending any matches at under-14 level or below to make it harder for clubs to track top talent early.”

Leeds are looking to tap into strong talent pools early

When you see that the best player in the Championship this season was an unknown youth signing from Holland in 2020, it makes sense that Leeds would be looking for the next big thing.

Along with Pirie, McDonald and Mahady, Leeds already have three talents who appear to be shrewd signs for the youth set-up.

Whether they make it to senior level any time soon remains to be seen, but the potential is there for everyone who watched our U18s reach the FA Youth Cup final.