International Women's Day

How Mariela became Norwich's scouting pioneer

8 Mar 2022

The Canaries' head of emerging talent speaks about her journey to becoming a first-team scout

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This International Women's Day, we speak with fans, community participants and inspiring women working in football to see how the Premier League and our clubs are working to promote gender equality in the game.

Norwich City

As the only female full-time scout in the Premier League, Norwich City's head of emerging talent Mariela Nisotaki is a trailblazer for other women seeking a career in football.

Having studied sports science and physical education at the University of Athens, Mariela moved to Cardiff to study sports analysis. That led to a role at Swansea City under Garry Monk, who was then the manager.

She moved to Norwich in 2017, where her expertise in assessing data and information has become vital to the club's scouting operation.

"I would probably be lying if I said I knew that I was going to become a scout but I did know that I wanted to do something with sports," she says in the video above.

"Maybe it's a little bit more difficult to enter the field as a woman but once you are there, it's positive because people really respect what you are doing."

One of Mariela's successes was the scouting and signing of Argentinian midfielder Emiliano Buendia, who proved to be a big hit in his three seasons at Carrow Road before he moved to Aston Villa last summer for a club-record fee.

"She's got this job because she's good at it," says Norwich City sporting director Stuart Webber. "She's worked her way up and is a key member.

"There's now a lot of females working within the game. In my experience, there's definitely more opportunities now."

Also in this series

Part 1: Brighton giving Lexi the chance to realise football dreams
Part 2: Women of Watford breaking down barriers for female fans
Part 3: 'Football can influence society and break the gender bias'
Part 5: Crystal Palace offer Lauren chance to follow her dream

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