"?Hoffenheim's Director of Scouting, Lutz Pfannenstiel - he of globetrotting goalie fame - has spoken to 90min about how the German club unearthed Brazilian gem Roberto Firmino, as well as revealing his predictions for the next big talents to come out of the Bundesliga.
Firmino, who cost Hoffenheim roughly £3.5m, joined Premier League leaders Liverpool in 2015 for a reported £29m, and has become a firm fan favourite, scoring five goals and registering three assists so far this season.
Pfannenstiel, who was famously the only player to have played in all six FIFA confederations, spoke to us about the process involved in finding the be-ponytailed forward, in a follow up to an interview on talkSPORT with Andy Jacobs and Paul Hawksbee.
"We used a lot of tools, including SAP, to provide the data." The former Wimbledon keeper said.
"Once you have a list five or six players, then you need to think about mentality and you need to watch players personally and find out about their mentality, especially when moving country is involved...
"[With Firmino] we worked hand in hand with his agent, who has a great scouting network."
The 43-year-old also told of how digital scouting tools are changing the landscape of his job.
"[Nowadays] It's easier to get statistics and basic data. Of course you are able to use it to make the list of interesting players more compact. But the final scouting needs to be done by a human eye."
Following the success of Firmino, Pfannenstiel revealed his expert picks for who he thinks will be the next big things to come out of the German top flight.
"Niklas Süle and Nadim Amiri from Hoffenheim have a great future. Also look out for [Emre] Mor and [Christian] Pulisic from Dortmund and Julian Brandt from Bayer Leverkusen."
Since reaching the Bundesliga in 2008, Hoffenheim have become famous for finding diamonds in the rough, and Lutz spoke about which other unknown or underrated talents he is most proud of helping to unearth.
"It [scouting] always works as a joint co-operation within the manager, coach and scouting department.
"I don't want to mention just one or two players, but looking at players like Luiz Gustavo, Anthony Modeste or Kevin Volland shows that we focus a lot on scouting."