Even Gina Din-Kariuki, the public relations legend with years of experience and exposure, was taken aback by her son’s decision to study football.
On the day Naythan Din-Kariuki was promoted as Lead Data Scout for Aston Villa, the English Premier League club, she reflected on how her son ventured into this unusual career.
A Lead Data Scout is essentially the person who oversees data use to identify, evaluate, and recommend players—serving as the bridge between traditional scouting and advanced analytics. He is the analytics brain of finding players, analysing teams, and helping the club make smarter, evidence-based decisions.
“Naythan was just a teenager when he told us he wanted to study football,” recalled Gina Din in a March 10, 2025, Instagram post. “Studying and football didn’t belong in the same sentence for me—but if you know Naythan, you know he’s as persuasive as he is determined,” she said.
"Football isn’t just art anymore—it’s a science, and I’ve made it my path to bridge both worlds."
Three football degrees later, he has charted his own path—starting at Oxford United, then Horsens in Denmark, and less than a year ago joining Aston Villa, she added.
Looking into his fascinating career makes you appreciate that football has evolved from being purely an art to also being a science. Everything in football is calculated.
In a dissertation for his MSc in Sports Business and Leadership, Naythan investigated the inequitable transfer mobility of African footballers. For his MSc in Sports Performance and Analysis at Middlesex University, his dissertation examined the relationship between goalscoring, finishing skill, and chance quality, exploring how players’ technical abilities and decision-making influence scoring outcomes.
Naythan Din-Kariuki began his career in January 2016 as a first-team goalkeeper coach at Nairobi’s Kariobangi Sharks FC. After Sharks, he joined Eden Sports Group before moving to English side Oxford United FC in 2020. In 2023, he was recruited by Danish club AC Horsens as a senior scout, a role he held until April 2024, when he joined Aston Villa.
-Dominic Omondi