( CNN ) Brace yourself Europe -- `` Moneyball '' is coming to a football pitch near you . Spend-thrift baseball executive Billy Beane -- made famous by Brad Pitt 's Oscar-nominated portrayal in `` Moneyball '' -- is taking up a position with Dutch club AZ Alkmaar . `` I 'm truly excited for the opportunity to be part of AZ Alkmaar in an advisory role , '' Beane told the AZ website . `` Despite being a great football club with a storied history , they face many of the challenges we have with the Oakland A 's . My love for football and AZ 's vision of the future of the club made this an attractive pursuit . '' The idea behind `` Moneyball '' is to obtain maximum value for each player bought or sold . Beane has had a longstanding fascination with European football , citing Arsenal 's Arsene Wenger as a manager he admires for his blend of performance on the pitch and financial prudence . The American has said in the past that it was his dream to be an executive at a football club once his baseball career ended . It turns out he did n't have to wait that long . `` I think it 's interesting and exciting for him personally , '' said Chris Anderson , co-founder of the sports analytics consultancy Anderson Sally . `` He 's been a football fan for many , many years and is very well informed about the sport and industry . This is not as much a stretch as one might imagine ; he actually knows football . '' Beane will retain his general manager duties with the Oakland A 's , a team that remains competitive despite sporting one of the lowest payrolls in Major League Baseball ( MLB ) . The A 's have qualified for MLB 's playoffs each of the past three seasons , only to be knocked out before the World Series every time . Critics of baseball 's sabermetrics system -- using data to analyze the sport as exposed in Michael Lewis ' `` Moneyball '' book which inspired the film -- are quick to point out that Beane has never won a title with the A 's . In Holland , Beane wo n't need to start from scratch , as AZ currently sits comfortably in fourth place in the Dutch Eredivisie . AZ 's director of football Earnie Stewart is a known `` Moneyball '' fan himself , having organized a screening for his fellow AZ execs shortly after joining the club . The former U.S. midfielder , who scored against Colombia in the 1994 World Cup , is half-Dutch and hopes the collaboration with Beane can give the club an extra edge . `` We 've had a lot of contact with Billy In the last few months '' , Stewart told the club 's website . `` His knowledge and ideas are impressive . Also Billy 's soccer network is excellent . We have already noticed that Billy thinks two steps ahead in the area of innovation . That 's what really connects with the ambitions of AZ . '' Like the A 's , AZ have managed to compete with the big boys of the Dutch league -- chiefly PSV and Ajax -- on a limited budget , winning the domestic league twice -- most recently in 2009 -- while finishing in the top five in three of the past five seasons . Beane 's philosophy is shaped by getting maximum bang for your buck in the transfer market . `` There is a misconception that you never pay much for anybody , but that is not true at all , '' Beane told the Telegraph in 2011 . `` You want to make sure you are getting more value than you are paying . That may come in the form of a very expensive player , it may come in the form of a very young player , but it 's not about being cheap or not spending money . '' But it 's questionable whether `` Moneyball '' principles can be applied to football , a sport where -- unlike in U.S. sports leagues -- players are rarely traded for one another . Instead , athletes are sold for prices determined by a marketplace , untethered by salary caps . However , Anderson argues Beane could be about to exploit a gap in the market . `` I would say unequivocally that markets for players are much more inefficient in soccer than in baseball , '' said Anderson , who also wrote `` The Numbers Game : Everything You Know About Football Is Wrong . '' `` The combination of a global market plus inefficiency means that is a huge opportunity in soccer that there is n't in the same way in baseball . '' Either way , Beane is likely to relish the challenge of imparting his knowledge to the boardrooms of European football , perhaps even as a pre-cursor to a full time job in the sport . `` I think he certainly would be open to the possibility of taking on a role , '' said Anderson , adding that Beane could be using the advisory position to dip his toe into the shark-infested waters of football player transfers . `` In football we 're still in a pre-'Moneyball ' era , '' added Anderson . `` So the baseball equivalent of the mid-1990s . is the football equivalent of 2015 . ''
Baseball 's Anderson to join top-tier Dutch club as executive . Smaller clubs seeking advantage over big -pending giants .