Originally Posted by Top

I don't think it's that far fetched.
Football Manager's player database is quite impressive and accurate.
It's not unthinkable that some clubs take the opportunity to look closer at a player after having noticed him in the FM database.

Say a club has sent a scout down to South Africa to watch a player based on the recommendation of a former player. Then it's not unlikely that they'd also watch a match where a good "FM-player" is playing if they are already in the area.

Football Manager has thousands of scouts/researchers all around the world. Looking at a player based on FM would be like looking at a player based on the recommendations from a group of people who had watched that player.