LEVERKUSEN, Germany — The challenge, as Jonas Boldt sees it, is that soccer no longer has any secrets: no territory left uncharted, no stone left unturned, no gems still hidden.

He knows, for example, that the coup that transformed his own career — which kick-started a journey that took him from intern at his boyhood club to his current post as sporting director of one of Germany’s biggest teams — almost could not happen now. The world has changed too much, become too small, too busy.

In 2007, Boldt was still in his mid-20s when, having completed a master’s degree in business administration and sports management and two internships with Bayer Leverkusen, he decided to spend some time in South America: to learn another language, to “get some life experience.”

At Leverkusen, his primary task had been to build a database of all the information the club had on potential new signings, and he had done it well enough to catch the eye of Michael Reschke, Leverkusen’s sporting director.