Culture Fit vs. Culture Add in Football: Building Squads That Win and Last

Rocco Baldassarre
2 days ago
7 min read

Every club today talks about “culture.”

“We have a strong culture.” “We recruit for culture.” “We protect the culture.”

But when you ask, “What exactly is your culture?” most people struggle to define it. They point to value statements on the wall, slogans in the tunnel, or social-media mottos — as if culture were fixed, timeless, and immune to change.

In reality, culture is not a poster. It’s how a club actually works — day after day, decision after decision, person after person.

And when it comes to building football squads that win and last, culture raises a crucial strategic question:

Do we want “culture fit”… or “culture add”?Players and staff who match what we already are — or people who help us become what we’re trying to be?

This article unpacks that distinction and connects it directly to performance on the pitch.

1. What Culture Really Is (and Isn’t)

Culture is often treated as something vague and mystical. A “vibe.” A “feeling.” A “way we do things.”

A more useful definition is this:

Culture is how a community agrees to work together.

In a football club, that “agreement” shows up in concrete questions like:

How do we make decisions?
How do we divide responsibility between ownership, sporting director, coach and staff?
How do we train, compete, recover, and communicate?
How do we treat players who are in-form vs out-of-form?
How do we react to mistakes, risk, and failure?

Some cultures are tight: there is strong shared agreement and very little deviation from the norm. Others are looser: more variation, more autonomy, more individual interpretation.

Neither is automatically “better” — but each creates a very different environment for players and coaches.

2. Culture Is What You Do, Not What You Say

Most clubs have official values:

“Respect”
“Hard work”
“Family”
“Excellence”
“Meritocracy”

They put them on their website or on the dressing-room wall. But those are often aspirational, not descriptive.

Players and staff very quickly learn that:

The real culture is revealed by decisions, not by slogans.

For example:

Who gets picked, renewed, extended — and who doesn’t
Who is forgiven after a mistake, and who is punished
Which behaviors are quietly tolerated, and which are addressed
Which staff get autonomy and trust — and which are micromanaged
What people are actually rewarded for: loyalty, results, obedience, risk-taking, or something else

You can say, “We empower staff,” then block every decision until it goes through the owner. You can say, “We believe in youth,” then never play young players unless there’s an injury crisis.

Players don’t listen to speeches. They watch patterns. Once they decode the lived culture, their behavior adjusts accordingly — for better or worse.

3. Culture Fit: When the Environment and the Player Align

Culture fit is the degree to which an individual’s values, expectations, and working style match the real culture of the club.

When fit is high:

The player understands what is expected
The environment “makes sense” to them
Their natural way of working is reinforced, not constantly challenged
They feel respected, included, and able to contribute

That typically translates into:

More engagement
More energy
More consistency
Better performance over time

When fit is low, even very talented players can underperform.

A very real pattern

You can see this in countless careers: a player shines in one club, struggles badly in another, then suddenly “looks like himself again” after moving.

In the webinar, we looked at an Italian player who spent ten years across five clubs, all in the same country, same league, same language. Tactically and physically, nothing radical changed. But:

In two clubs, media and insiders frequently mentioned “poor fit,” “problems in the dressing room,” “not aligned with the club.”
In those same clubs, the player’s performance clearly dipped.
In the other clubs, where no such issues were reported, his performance was significantly stronger — even late in his career.

Same player. Same league. Same role.

The variable? Cultural fit.

This isn’t abstract. It directly influences market value, career trajectory, and results on the pitch.

4. Why “Fairness” and “Values” Aren’t Universal

Another layer of complexity: even when people use the same words, they don’t always mean the same thing.

Take the word fairness.

In one culture, fairness might mean “the most competent person gets the job.”
In a family-owned context, fairness might mean “family loyalty comes first, even over competence.”

From the outside, a player or staff member hears, “We are fair here” and assumes their definition of fairness. Then reality hits.

The same happens when:

A coach joins a club that talks about “playing brave football” but punishes risk in practice
A player joins a team that talks about “family” but rotates and discards squad players with no communication
A performance director hears “we want to modernize and be data-driven,” then finds every data-driven decision blocked by hierarchy

These aren’t minor misunderstandings. They are value conflicts — and they are at the heart of culture fit problems.

5. Culture Flows From the Top (the “Gravity” Effect)

One hard truth about culture:

Culture flows top-down. It obeys the law of gravity.

A captain can influence team culture — but only within the space the coach allows.
A coach can reshape the dressing room — but only as far as the sporting director and ownership allow.
A sporting director can modernize structures — but only if the board and owner truly want that change.

If leadership says, “We want initiative,” but punishes anyone who acts without approval, the lived culture becomes:

“Don’t move unless the boss signs it off.”

If leadership says, “We trust our staff,” but insists on reviewing every email, lineup, or communication, the culture becomes:

“Control matters more than speed or responsibility.”

Players and staff adapt. They reduce risk. They give the minimum required to stay out of trouble.

The club loses the benefit of their creativity, energy, and passion — not because they’re bad professionals, but because the culture teaches them to hold back.

6. Culture Add: When You Need to Evolve, Not Just Protect

If culture fit were the whole story, the safest strategy would be:

“Only sign people who are just like us.”

But football is not static:

Tactical models evolve
Leagues change intensity and style
Ownership structures shift
Financial reality changes
The club’s ambitions grow

At some point, what got you here won’t get you there.

That’s where culture add comes in.

Culture add = bringing in people who don’t just “fit” the current culture, but help move it toward where it needs to go.

Examples:

A club that has always been conservative and low risk wants to become more proactive and attacking
A historically closed environment wants to become more international and open
A club with weak internal communication wants people who challenge silence and encourage honest dialogue

You can do that in two ways:

Develop your existing people (through leadership, education, and clear modeling), and
Recruit players and staff who bring what you’re missing — and are empowered to actually express it.

Culture add is not “random difference.” It’s targeted difference: people whose way of thinking and behaving is slightly ahead of where the club is now, but aligned with where it wants to go.

7. Squad Construction: Culture, Numbers, and Roles

Culture isn’t just about slogans and values — it also shows up in how you build the squad.

In the webinar, we touched on an example from Italian football: a big club that hired a high-profile coach who deliberately chose to work with:

A relatively small core of senior outfield players
Supplemented by youth players
In a season with no European competitions

From a pure risk-management standpoint, many questioned it:

“What if injuries hit?”
“What if form drops?”

But culturally, there was a clear logic:

Fewer senior players = fewer permanently unhappy “number 21–25” squad members
More clarity about roles and hierarchy
A stronger sense that everyone in the senior group is truly part of the project

Performance followed: after a few months, the team was top of the league, and bench players were coming in with high impact.

The flip side exists too.

Some clubs and teams operate with larger squads, but with a very clear cultural motto:“Next man up.”

In those environments:

Every player knows they may be called upon at any moment
The culture tells them: “You must always be prepared to step in as a starter”
They don’t see themselves as “reserves,” but as part of a rotating group of contributors

Both models can work. The key isn’t the number of players.The key is cultural clarity:

Do players understand their role?
Do they feel part of something meaningful?
Does the environment invite engagement or passive waiting?

8. Fit vs Add: Practical Questions for Clubs

When you’re deciding whether you need culture fit or culture add in a signing or hire, useful questions include:

For Culture Fit

Does this player’s or staff member’s natural way of working align with our actual day-to-day behavior?
Will our current environment support them, or constantly fight them?
Are we asking them to live values they don’t truly share?

For Culture Add

Where do we want our culture to be in 3–5 years?
What behaviors, mindsets, and norms are missing today?
Can this person realistically help us move in that direction — and will leadership allow that influence?
Are we ready to tolerate the short-term friction that comes when someone challenges “how we’ve always done it”?

Fit without add = stability but potential stagnation. Add without fit = chaos and constant friction.

High-performing clubs think in both dimensions.

9. Key Takeaways

Culture is how your club agrees to work together — not what’s printed on the wall.
Players don’t respond to speeches; they respond to patterns of behavior.
Culture fit strongly influences on-pitch performance, even when tactics and leagues stay constant.
Values like “fairness,” “family,” and “ambition” don’t mean the same thing to everyone. Misalignment here creates deep frustration.
Culture flows from the top. Owners, executives and head coaches ultimately shape what is rewarded, tolerated, and punished.
Culture add is essential when you want to evolve. You can’t become a new kind of club with only old patterns of thinking.
Squad size and role clarity are cultural decisions, not just technical ones.
The most successful clubs design culture instead of assuming it — and they recruit with both fit and add in mind.