Many of sports' curios band of star spotters perceive Mark Germain as soccer's 21st Century version of Bob Bishop, the legendary eagle-eyed Irish scout who lifted George Best from a sprawling Belfast coucil estate onto Manchester United's Old Trafford stage almost 50 years ago. There can be no greater accolade than that.
Certainly the gentle giant's nod-and-wink relationship with most of the Premier League and Champion youth representatives tells a tale, a clear indication of the 44-year-old former civil servents status within his specialist field.
Quite what Germain possesses is hard to fathom. Yet the devout Christian is comfortably able to mix a caring nature with a no-nonsense chiseled judgement that would, surely, have impressed even the late Brian Clough.
Germain might have been born in the Rhondda Valley at Maerdy, where coal was once king, butit was on the same tough Tiger Bay alleys that the world-class crooner Dame Shirley Bassey once strolled where the Welshman, with Caribbean roots, graduated in the University of Life.
As Germain swiftly discovered, only the most hardened characters survived and it is that sort of doctrine which the star maker drives, albeit with care, into the youngest of the GSD stable.
It was Germain who at a Butetown youth club first picked our and influenced the career of the former Wales U-21, Burnley, Preston and Cardiff City striker Kurt Nogan.
He recalled: "I always knew he had what was needed to make it as a professional. He eventually made a good living from the game at quite a few clubs. But I remember being so proud when I saw him make his first-team debut for Luton Town and scoring against Liverpool.
"There was a tear in my eye - I think it was at that moment that I belived God was showing me where he wanted my life to go. I had a passion in developing youth all that time ago and the strong desire to induce an improvement in others. The feeling has never waned."
Germain feels that GSD's starlets, many already youth internationals, have, despite an increasing influx of foreign imports, a fighting chance to progress at clubs like Manchester City, Bristol City, Cardiff City, Swansea City, Preston as well as many others.
"There can be a very delicate membrance between a young man making it as a professional sportsman or not - there are an abundance of dangers laying in wait to derail even the talented kid.
"The perils can rear from a variety of sources - many come from lifestyle situations beyond a football club. It makes me very sad to see promise strangled.
"Prevention has always been the best cure, of course. I see my job as not just uncovering a player of the future, but also, on occasions, being a shield to elevate any pressures that can distract a kid from his objectives.
"At GSD I belive we have the specialist presonnel to cope with any obstacles that might threaten or encumber a client. We are very much a team that is united in the common goal of being there throughout a player's career, sharing his joy and, of course, the pain."
