Using AHP Method and QFD for Selection of a Goalkeeper in a Football Team

In recent years, football clubs, mostly due to financial reasons, need to evaluate the football players more accurately in line with the demands of their technical teams and to make the right choice (the need to transfer the right player) among the players they have evaluated. Football clubs are customers throughout the player selection process, hence the “voice” of the customer; must be taken into account in such a way as to meet the expectations of the technical teams from a football player for any position. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the football players according to the needs of a football club technical team and to choose the best among them. In this study, the goalkeeper position will be examined. In future studies, studies will be expanded for each position. The requirements of the technical team for the goalkeeper position will be evaluated with 38 different criteria under the main headings which are technical, mental, physical and goalkeeping. In this paper, potential goalkeeper candidates will be evaluated with the help of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method and compared with each other to choose the best among them. In addition, the weights and evaluation criteria related to Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Quality House (HOQ), which the technical team of X (the club that is the subject of the study) Football Club needs for the goalkeeper position, will be developed and some improvement areas will be determined. A case study will be conducted among the five goalkeepers (Goalkeeper I, Goalkeeper II, Goalkeeper III, Goalkeeper IV, Goalkeeper V) regarding the goalkeeper needs of X Football Club. Data will be obtained from Football Manager 2022 game. In addition, HOQ rates will be made by the technical team of X Football Club. The findings will point to the best goalkeeper out of the five that meets the needs of Football Club X. In addition, according to HOQ, it is aimed to determine the most important factors for the improvement of goalkeepers’ performance in line with the criteria of the technical team of X Football Club.