I found this article to be quite interesting, even though I do not follow soccer...

will_work4tears on July 1, 2014 | parent | context | favorite | on: An analysis of Lionel Messi

I found this article to be quite interesting, even though I do not follow soccer/football (fútbol?). I find this sort of data analytic to be fascinating. It almost seems like art, what data sets to pull from, how to compare it, etc. How would one, other than brushing up on statistics, get into this sort of field? It seems much more interesting than basic web development.

rjtavares on July 1, 2014 [–]

Coursera has a Data Science specialization track by Johns Hopkins university. That would be a good place to start.