Former Roma scout Javier Weiner looks back on Giallorossi spell, missed transfer targets and more

Former Roma scout Javier Weiner spoke about his years in the Italian capital.

After being released from the club on June 30th, Weiner gave an interview to calciomercato.com in which he discussed a range of topics.

“During my time at Roma learned a lot from my colleagues and from Tiago Pinto, from him I learned above all about how to time certain transfer moves, finding the right moment to go for a player,” he said.

“My database? I have my own personal one that I update every six months, with more than 1000 footballers inside; they are mainly South Americans with Italian passports. I order them according to different items: championship, team, position, year and my rating on both the current and potential level. But in top clubs you mostly work on the club’s database.”

“At Racing we had an Excel sheet where I inserted the reports that the other scouts sent me, while at Roma there is a database with an internal structure: just one click and you have a list of players followed in recent years.”

“Mourinho? He is a simple person. Although, when he looked into your eyes with a serious look, I couldn’t have any doubts about what I was saying; I had to be convinced, and you only acquire this conviction by working hard.”

“Going from Mourinho to De Rossi? It was a strange moment, but De Rossi also made an excellent impression on me. He listens a lot and is always very clear when he asks for players on the market: he indicates the specific characteristics that in his opinion a new signing must have.”

“The best player I brought to Roma’s attention? Kendry Paez. We were close to getting him, but we couldn’t due to bureaucratic problems. The first time I saw him when he was 15 years old and he immediately struck me, today I realize that year after year he gets better and better. In recent years, however, we have also been very close to another young South American.”

“His name is Facundo Buonanotte. I followed him for a whole year even before he made his debut in the first team, he was without a contract and with an Italian passport; even in that case, however, he missed everything due to problems related to bureaucracy.”