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Toronto FC has unveiled a new app<\/a> designed to help the organization scout young talent. The app, called TFC Widenet, evaluates athletes aged six and up based on their speed and skill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Launched this week, the app is essentially \u201ca pathway to become\u2014potentially\u2014a TFC player,” said Humza Teherany, chief technology and digital officer at Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which owns Toronto FC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The free app combines augmented reality with the phone\u2019s camera to measure an athlete\u2019s athletic ability, based on a 20-meter sprint and a 200-meter shuttle\u2014two drills that can easily be done in a park or a gym. The athletes record themselves or have a friend film them while they perform the drills, then the app verifies the data and sends the information to TFC. Then, the information is entered into a leaderboard, which lets participants see how they fare against other players of the same age and gender.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The app is the result of MLSE\u2019s desire to harness advanced technology for the benefit of the league and its teams\u2014and development was fast-tracked due to the pressures of the pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “How do we find talent? How do we do it differently than everybody else? How do we get access to every kid in the country, maybe even every kid in the world, leveraging our digital capabilities,” said Teherany<\/a>. “And then we went to work on the tech.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The app was developed by MLSE Digital Labs, the football league\u2019s in-house digital team and the “the largest and deepest technology organization in pro sports\u201d, according to Teherany.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n