You’re on Twitter, you love football — enough requirements for job at Serie A club

Everyone online seems to know everything about football — or at least, that’s how it looks But every now and then, someone really does.

Serie A club Como 1907 appear to have found one of those rare cases. They’ve just appointed 20-year-old Felix Johnston as a first-team scout — a move that has stunned many across the football world.

It’s been a meteoric rise for Johnston, who not long ago was creating Chelsea-related content on X (formerly Twitter), posting in-depth analysis of the club’s academy prospects. Now, he’s part of a project led by none other than Cesc Fabregas, the former Chelsea, Arsenal, and Spain midfielder, as Como push to establish themselves in Italy’s top tier.

"It's been a long journey," Johnston told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Monday Night Club.

"It started with my friend messaging me during lockdown saying 'you need to get on Twitter, that’s where everyone is talking about football'. I took it kind of seriously, built up a following and where it really started was when I discovered the Chelsea academy."

That discovery turned into something much bigger. Johnston began scouting players on his own, and as Chelsea doubled down on youth recruitment, his work gained traction. The past six months have taken things to an entirely new level.

His first professional opportunity arrived in April, when Danish side Vejle brought him on as a scouting consultant. A few months later, in July, Como came calling.

"The director of recruitment [at Como] reached out to me on Twitter saying he liked what I was tweeting and that he would like to do an internship and find some modern, younger scouts to bring into the club," Johnston said.

"I was obviously very happy to go along with that and nine weeks later, I got the job. My role, essentially, is that I get passed down data players, watch them on the eye and do a report. I look at the players they ask me to look at. But it's an all-encompassing role, not restricted by any region or position."

It’s far from the traditional route into football, but Johnston insists Como are a "very forward-thinking club" eager to "get the new talent on the scene."

So far, that forward-thinking spirit seems to be paying off — Como sit seventh in their second season back in Serie A, and their young scout’s story is becoming a symbol of football’s changing landscape.