Cuju App Helps Santos Scout Brazil's Soccer Talent Using AI

A smartphone app built in Germany is changing how Brazilian clubs find their next generation of talent. Cuju, developed by Rogon Technologies, uses artificial intelligence to evaluate young players through standardized video drills, turning smartphone footage into objective performance scores instead of relying on a scout's gut read at a match. The app reached around 160,000 downloads by mid-2026, with more than 80,000 participants taking part in pilot programs across Brazil. Santos F.C., the club that launched the careers of Pelé and Neymar, is among those using Cuju's regional rankings to identify promising players.

From Phone Camera to Scouting Report

The mechanics are simple by design. Young players record themselves on their phones performing drills that test ball control, speed, and agility, and Cuju's AI analyzes the footage to produce a performance score. Those scores feed regional leaderboards that give club scouts a curated pool of talent to browse, and top-ranked players get invited to live scouting events and in-person trials that turn a digital ranking into a real trial opportunity. One such event in Santa Catarina brought together more than 150 top-ranked players, giving clubs direct access to talent they might otherwise never have crossed paths with through conventional scouting networks. Rogon Technologies was co-founded by player agent Roger Wittmann and former Bayern Munich and Brazil national team midfielder Luiz Gustavo, and their existing European agency network gives the platform credibility with clubs on both sides of the Atlantic.

Brazil's Talent Pipeline Problem

The problem Cuju is built to solve is structural. Traditional scouting runs on personal networks and scouts physically traveling to watch games, a system that naturally favors players already based in major urban centers with established youth academies, leaving a gifted teenager in a small town in Minas Gerais or the Amazon basin with little chance of ever being seen. The 80,000 pilot participants recording drills and competing for leaderboard positions point to real engagement rather than downloads sitting idle on a phone, and that active use is what makes the platform genuinely useful to clubs rather than just another app. Santos fits the profile of an early adopter well, given the club has long built its identity around developing youth talent rather than funding expensive transfers, and a data-driven way to widen its scouting net lines up directly with that approach.

No Tokens, No Blockchain, Just Data

What stands out most about Cuju's growth is what it doesn't involve. There are no tokens, no blockchain protocols, and no digital assets anywhere in the platform, at a time when sport has been one of the favorite testing grounds for crypto pitches, from fan tokens to NFT ticketing to blockchain-based loyalty programs. The platform, actually gaining traction in one of football's most important talent markets, runs on plain AI and cloud infrastructure instead. Cuju's climb from launch in 2025 to 160,000 downloads roughly a year later shows how quickly adoption can move when the value on both sides of the marketplace is straightforward: players get visibility, and clubs get data.