Shadow XI: Be a Football Scout

Every great club starts with one name. In Shadow XI, finding it is your job.

How a career works

1. Choose where you start. England, Spain, Italy, Germany or France. Two or three clubs from the lowest league in the game offer you your first job, each a different kind of club.
2. Take the manager's brief. A centre-back who can deal with the ball over the top. A striker who runs in behind. A budget, a wage limit, a few scouting days.
3. Scout. Search the market, watch players live and on video, read the data, check the background, and keep your best targets on your shadow team.
4. Back one name. Recommend a player, or nobody. Then the season is played.
5. Open the file. At the end of the season you see how your signing really did, and why. Get your calls right and you climb: scout, senior scout, chief scout, head of recruitment, director of football.

What is in the game

• A full scouting desk: live matches, video, data charts by category, heatmaps, shot maps, background checks and your own notebook
• Player profiles with positions, roles, career history, and data compared with his own league and with the top level
• Transfers as clubs really do them: budgets, wages, loans, free agents, pre-contracts and work permits
• More tools as you rise, and harder calls with them: potential is never guaranteed, and data does not always travel
• Jobs abroad, if you learn the language
• Five languages: English, Spanish, Italian, French and German
• Settings for colour blindness, greyscale, larger text, high contrast and reduced movement

What is not in the game

• No adverts
• No pay-to-win
• No account needed, and it works without an internet connection once opened

Play on your phone

Open the game in your phone's browser. On an iPhone, tap Share and then Add to Home Screen. On Android, open the browser menu and tap Install app or Add to Home screen. It then opens like an app, full screen.

Keep your career safe

Your career is saved in your browser on this device. Clearing your browser's data deletes it, so use Settings, Your save, Download a backup now and then, and keep the file somewhere safe. The same file moves your career to another device.

The clubs, players and people in the game are fictional.