💡 Why it matters: Clubs and betting, media and tech companies use match and player data to make decisions. People who can turn numbers into clear insights are in demand, and they can work from anywhere.
🌍 Around the world
- United States: Jobs for data scientists are projected to grow 35% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than average (US Bureau of Labor Statistics).
💰 What it can pay
🇳🇬 Nigeria
- Starting out
- ₦1.8M – ₦4.5M
- Mid-career
- ₦5M – ₦13M
- Senior
- ₦13M – ₦30M
≈ ₦417k – ₦1.1M a month mid-career. Indicative estimate by Incusim.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
Closest UK job: Data analyst-statistician. Typical starter to experienced salary. National Careers Service, 2026
🇺🇸 United States
Closest US category: Data scientists. Median pay; low and high are the 10th and 90th percentiles. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025
🇨🇦 Canada
Closest Job Bank occupation: Data scientist. Hourly wage low/median/high x 2,080 hours. Job Bank (Government of Canada), 2023-2024
Yearly pay before tax. UK, US and Canada figures come from the official sources named on each card. Nigeria has no official salary survey, so those are our indicative estimates. Real pay depends on the employer, the place, your skills and experience.
🛠️ What you actually do
- Collect and clean data on matches and players
- Build charts and reports for coaches and scouts
- Find patterns, such as which passes lead to goals
- Help clubs decide which players to sign
- Present findings in plain language
⚡ Skills you'll need
- Data analysis
- Maths
- Coding
- Football knowledge
- Communication
Get ready at school
🇳🇬 Nigeria
- Online courses in data analysis with Excel, SQL and Python, then build a sports analytics portfolio
- Volunteer to analyse games for a local club or academy
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Data analyst apprenticeship
- Build a portfolio of football or other sports analysis and volunteer for a local club
🇺🇸 United States
- Internships with teams, leagues or sports media
- Online courses plus a portfolio of sports analysis projects
🇨🇦 Canada
- Co-op work terms with teams or sports media
- Online courses plus a portfolio of sports analysis projects
🗺️ Your path to this career
- 1Study Mathematics and Economics in school
- 2Learn Excel and basic data skills with your favourite team's stats
- 3Earn a degree in statistics, maths, computer science or sports science
- 4Build a portfolio of football analysis projects
- 5Join a club, media outlet or sports tech company
⏰ A day in the life
You pull the weekend's match data into a dashboard and compare it with last month's. Then you prepare a one-page report for the coach showing which opponent weaknesses to target.