This week, Newcastle quietly made one of their smartest signings, and it wasn’t a player. They’ve appointed Sudarshan “Suds” Gopaladesikan as their new Technical Director.
You probably haven’t heard of him. But if you’re wondering how Ademola Lookman turned into a Europa League final hat-trick hero, or how Rasmus Højlund was scouted from Sturm Graz and ended up at Man United for €77m, Suds played a part in both.
He started at Microsoft, where he worked on a data partnership with Real Madrid. That led to a role at Benfica, where he founded their first sports science department and built systems that linked scouting, player development, and performance analytics.
Then came Atalanta. While most clubs overlooked Lookman due to his journeyman resume, Suds’ analysis showed he was performing at a level far above what the market expected.
Højlund’s movement data, overlaid onto Atalanta’s attack patterns, showed a perfect fit. He made Atalanta pay €21m for a teenager with no Serie A experience and sold him a year later for more than triple.
In his own words: none. Suds doesn’t give interviews. But the results speak for themselves.
Source: Plantikk on Facebook.
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