Transfermarkt SA: Mining football data for local fans

An experienced software engineer and avid football supporter who has always dreamed of working in football, Sahil Ebrahim saw the perfect opportunity to combine his love for the beautiful game with his decade-long experience in IT when the German-based football statistics website Transfermarkt expanded into South Africa.

Transfermarkt SA provides the local football audience with scores, results, transfer news, fixtures as well as player values. The Outlier Sports spoke to Ebrahim about the role that website plays in the South African football scene. This is an edited version of our conversation.

How will South African football fans find Transfermarkt useful?

Transfermarkt has been a vital resource globally for football agents, football clubs and managers. However, our primary focus has always been the ever-growing community of global football fans, and we wanted to expand that into the South African market.

It is valuable to our users because the football data that we collect is often hard to find in an easily accessible and user-friendly format and that is where we come in.

The modern football industry is driven by data in key decision making. For those who can quantify that data in different ways, it’s a gold mine. So, it can be used at club level for player analysis, by journalists to determine the progress players and teams are making, and the average football fan just trying to win a debate with their friends.

How big is the Transfermarkt SA team?

Transfermarkt SA is still in its infancy stages compared with our European counterparts. I work with three other data scouts and administrators who assist me daily with regard to the compilation of the South African data. We can also call on our German colleagues if we need help with some of the technical aspects.

What are your highlights so far?

Starting alone is a big accomplishment because I was thrown right into the deep end, and it was quite daunting. Part of my mandate was to establish partnerships with clubs and media outlets, and all of this was completely new to me.

One of my first meetings was with [Mamelodi Sundowns chairperson] Thlopie Motsepe, before he was the main man in charge at Sundowns. I explained our platform to them and why I needed to work in tandem with them to bring our data up to standard. Overcoming that first set of hurdles was a highlight for me because I was new to this.

Any developments that users can look forward to?

Now that the 2022/23 season is over, we are going to have our very first Transfermarkt SA player of the season award. This award is very dear to me because in past seasons it has been awarded to global football superstars so having it here and knowing that it will be awarded to a South African-based player is exciting. Everyone can get involved as the decision-making process will also be open to fan engagement.

Is there anything you’d like to tailor for the local market?

One of the most requested features is the need to showcase our market value in rands. It is important that our users understand that having a global currency as a baseline makes it easier to compare our players against their global counterparts. But we have acknowledged the importance of using our own currency so that users can translate the value in a local sense, and that is something that we are actively working towards.

We would also like to expand our competition coverage. At the moment, we only cover the DStv Premiership, MTN8, Nedbank Cup and the promotional play-offs. We would like to expand into the Motsepe Foundation Championship in future.

We also have a sister platform called Soccerdonna that hosts women’s football competitions. It’s only available in Germany but we also have the Hollywoodbets Super League [South Africa’s national women’s football league] in South Africa and that is something that we would look to include in future.

Is it harder to operate in SA than Europe?

There is a definite challenge in getting the historical data for each competition because most of it is not available, and the historical data that is available is quite exclusive. Historical data is a key aspect in how we analyse and present our content.

Another challenge that is unique to South Africa relates to player fees and salaries. In Europe, for example, those get disclosed in one way or another. That allows you to pivot your market values accordingly. But in South Africa it’s rare that a club will disclose a fee paid for a player. The only time you will find them is when a player comes from another country, especially the South American leagues.  

Any last words?

Transfermakt can offer a lot of value across the football value chain, down from the football fan to the key decision-makers. It was born out of community engagement and community contribution, so you can basically call it the Wikipedia of football data. There is a stringent fact-checking process in place so that we can provide accurate data but the vast amount of data on the site is free and widely accessible. From a South African point-of-view, there is a lot of room to grow and contribute meaningfully to the local football scene.

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