When the World's Greatest Soccer Players Gather, Scouts Stay Away

MOSCOW — In the weeks before the World Cup, a flurry of phone calls went around the recruitment departments of some of Europe’s major clubs.

Strictly speaking, the scouts who work for the superpowers of the Premier League, La Liga and the rest are rivals, but theirs is a small, intimate world. Many have relationships that go back years, independent of their current employers. They have spent months on the road together, at the same games, watching the same players. They tend to talk.