Watching live conference from our latest transfer

1 month left, tick tack

Feels like time is running out, looking back at some earlier posts I wanted to have recap on the post from late September "Prep for 2014". Basically my strategic plan was to work on 3 points in order stay alive both in the short and long run. These 3 points were:

1. Collaboration with an academy:
Visiting the UK based academy I was just so impressed with resources that are used on these young kids. Comparing to my country of residence it is just day and night, anyone doubting football business is big deal should travel around in Europe seeing how much money is invested in kids.
Anyway, after some negotiations i managed to convince the academy director an agent is a necessity in order to get players out to pro clubs. He gave me his blessing and I got to work.
Back in my office I started contacting suitable clubs (there are several parameters to take into consideration when picking a club, such as; to they play young players, do they historically sell young players, coach mentality, club environment good for youth, level of league etc.). One of the conditions from the academy was that the club should cover all costs in regards to trails, in pro football this is not the standard. Opposite it always the agent/player that players that stands for this cost.
Also from the Academy side a prerequisite was that I as an agent do not take any commission from the first transfer, thats understandable.
Selling the academy and services to the suitable clubs I managed to arrange 3 trials for these young lads. First one was negative, the next 2 have been at their club for 2 weeks and yesterday the trainer was positive in an interview to the newspaper. We will have feedback today (please please).
I really have invested allot of time and cash on making me the agent for this academy so deeply hope they produce some interesting players..
Whats innit for me? Well I will write representation contract with the players and try get in a sell on clause for my self on next transfer.

2. Attacking players with ending contracts:
This I thought was a well performed point from my side. Together with a colleague from the agency I work with we had 12-13 good players were contracts ends, in other words helping transferring 5 out of those would be an ok result. This has not really worked out the way I wanted, mainly for 2 reasons. It is commonly known both by players/clubs/agents that it is a clubs market and that they determine the conditions (we have touched upon this subject before). Therefor half of those 12-13 players got offered new deals directly after the season ended, 2 months before the window open with a tight deadline. Players know it is not easy to find new clubs these days and therefore chose the safe option to directly extend the deal...
Secondly feedback from clubs is that the cant give any concrete offers for January before mid December, budgets are very tight and if they already have signed a player and lets say 2 crucial players get injured the last weeks of the year they will not have room in the budget to replace the injuries. Clubs wait until last minute, this of course makes the agent work much harder and players stressed.

2. Asking clubs for lists:
When I say lists I mean demand lists from clubs on what they will be looking for. This point has gone really well, and I have managed to get in contact with many clubs from UK, Holland, Belgium, Poland, Scandinavia, Ukraine, Greece etc. Problem is that I cant provide the players the clubs demand. Often I present a player were I know their agent which makes me have to split the potential commission. This is ok as long as you know the other agent well and no one tries to rip each other off..  


Two other points:
-There will be no new years celebration this year, need to be in the office 1 Jan in morning..

-David Russel movie The Fighter is on telly tonight, cant wait

dizzy & tv scouting

still after almost 6 months acting as a player agent i am amazed by how some days can just implode... Feels like every second day is totally different, yesterday I got all phonecalls, emails and contacts responded and planned out they way I wanted. Today totally opposite, few responses and negative feedback. In the very beginning I thought it was all about luck if someone got back directly when emailing a player presentation but I realize more and more that timing and tactics are essential. I have learned when before getting in touch things to bare in mind:

- Did the team lose the evening before (people are going to be negative)

- Is the person in mind or club travelling somewhere (trying to get hold of player, director, coach travelling is hard)

 - Is it a red day or holiday, try to get in touch with an Israeli club on yom kippur

- dont speak to directors about players if the coach is about to leave or get fired

- dont call people before 10.00 nobody within football picks up

there are just numerous of things to think through before you get in contact with someone. Today I was to dizzy/unconcentrated to think and got shit done. 

My agent colleague Zaid Eideh told me to write a couple lines in regards to what makes a player interesting for me as an agent and if there is any difference watching footy in my profession as oppose to a fan. Well there is at least one big difference. 

First of all want to emphasize that I have never played/coached so I have no real experience from pro football. I have not really developed an eye for scouting and looking at players from a pure technical perspective is not my strength (neither my interest). In other words I tend to avoid discussion with very technical oriented people... Anyway the way that I now watch football has changed slightly. I have realize that any player that want to perform on a ok pro level need competitve edge and thats what Iam looking for. Can he show something that nobody else on the pitch can, speed, precision, vision, passing% etc. 

The game today is to maximize the best individuals much more that team effort, how can each individual player in the optimal use their competitive edge. 

This is of course just my theory but before I did not in particular concentrate on this but now I do. 

Hope tomorrow is going to be a more productive day.

examples of emails

Recent email I have received, through my details being on FIFA.COM

Enjoy!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Agent

.

We are glad to introduce our company specialised in sport tours and travels for young people in Italy.

.

We have been operating since 1993 and since then we have dealt with more than 2,000 teams. We started with soccer and then, year after year, we added other sports following the increasing requests we received from coaches of other sports practised in Colleges and Universities.

.

We have excellent relationships with Pro Football Club in Italy and we can arrange TEAM CAMP and TEAM TOUR to any category and age group.

.

Apart from the tours, we also organise some of the most important soccer tournaments in Italy such as:

> Venice Christmas Cup (December 27-29 in Venice): 40 teams - categories: from under 13 to under 9

> Florence Epiphany Cup (January 3-5 in Florence): 40 teams - categories: from under 17 to under 9

> Terre di Siena Cup (Easter in Tuscany): 60 teams - categories: from under 17 to under 9

> Roma Cup (Easter in Rome): 60 teams - categories: from under 17 to under 9

> Milano Festival (Easter in Milan): 80 teams - categories: from under 17 to under 9

> Pfingsten Cup (Pentecost in Emilia Romagna): 80 teams - categories: from under 17 to under 9

> Mirabilanda Cup (June 19-22 in Emilia Romagna): 60 teams - categories: from under 17 to under 9

.

In case you are interested in collaborating with us, in both ways, do not hesitate to contact us

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hello mister fredrik

I'm young Senegalese player I would like your help  I'm a free agent fifa and club

I played the champion Senegal and tournaments in Europe

 I was in Europe in 2010 to play a tournament

I'm serious my name on google I would come in player sweden  on your help

I pay for my ticket and  hotel to come to test

I can send you the visa on my passport 

I am ready to come if you get me an invitation club

 my cv in french

cordially

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Hello Sir/ Ma

Hello My name is Seun Oloyede I am 16 years old ,Born in Lagos Nigeria. Am a very good Football Player , Well am looking for a Good Agent who can Manage me for as many trier in Europe and Asia for Tournament or Clubs . I have to go on a search at FI FA.com to seek for a very good Agent cos i do believe that's is the best way to Find a good Agent , so that's where i got to have your email address , hope i would be glad to hear from you soon .

My dreams is to play in Europe and be a better player , well known and famous like the professionals we see on the TV station and cables . I Play at the Central Midfielder and am very good in that , i train very harder and am always consistent athletics so i will be waiting your respond , Let me know if there is any Free Trier for your boy hope to hear from you soon , God bless you .

My Number +23470 5599 82

Best Regards

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Dear Friend,

Complement of the day to you and your love ones

I hope my email will arrive to you at good time.

My name is Ghais Mohammed from Damascus Syria.

I am 64 years old and retired. I was former personal investor & financial consultant advisers to

a Top Politician here in SYRIA.

Why I'm contacting you is to know if we can have a personal conversation.

Whatever truth you may brief me will be highly recommended.

Tell me more about your country, how good it will be to invest in your country.

Such as buying of properties, or real estate and some tourist places or any profitable investment venture that will yield good profit.

I will appreciate whatever result you may brief me.

Do let me know your idea and knowledge regarding this or any other profitable investment venture you may suggest.

I have a substantial amount and I am willing to order the transfer of the money to you for investment if you’re interested with my proposal.

In my next mail I will explain the full details of the project and interest, and then we reach an agreement on what will be your share from the money or investment.

I shall tell you more about myself when I read from you.

You may as well tell me little more about yourself when replying.

Waiting for your reply.

Thanks and best regards,

Ghais Mohammed

Damascus,Syria:

Standard Liege changing room.

Whats innit for me?

late evening/early night sitting in my office reading through old texts I come up with the following reflections:

since this agent thing is a quite new environment for me and mainly due to football players being a quite unique set of people an agent is put in many strange contexts, a couple of examples;

A player gets in touch with me and asks if I can call his sport responsible and ask what the clubs future plan is. This happened today. Here an agent is put a strange position, first of all its not my client second of its quite pathetic making errands for players that are not under representation with you.. I get several requests from players every week if I can help them with different stuff. The first couple of months I was so eager I could go and buy groceries for a any player (even pay) but nowadays I most likely tell them off. It has even happened that player with an agent travelling in another continent calls me asking for help because he cant get hold of him right now.
Getting calls like this a couple of points directly pop into my head, how can this be of benefit for me? Maybe in return I can:
- get a tip of a good talent
- find out info in regards to team mates and when their agent contracts end
- give me a number or email to player
- etc.

Iam slowly coming to the realization that this is a selfish world were people are willing to give up allot in order to gain themselves. I am no exception...

The best scenario though when recruiting players is to make a hell of a job and the by word of mouth you will have more clients. Majority of the players I work with I get recommended from a fellow player. This is a a much better scenario, if the player comes to you you have the upper hand directly. Opposite to beg for a chance to represent..




Whats innit for me ? at the end of the day I think we can agree its a cash related question.


Just a couple of thoughts that probably are not that linked to each other from a tired brain..

Quite impressed with the academy surrounding

Prep for window 2014

Frequent question (which also I asked myself) what do agents do when window is closed.

- Preperation work for the next window
- Scouting and Signing players
- Time off

As I understand (i am not exactly experiences in this game) prep work is done more or less 6-8 weeks before the window officially opens. Above that in theory and complying with FIFA regulations players can speak/sign for clubs 6 months before the end of their current contract. I have 3 strategic points I want to cover before the window opens, hopefully they will leave me much more prepared this time which will result in more deals done:

1. Collaboration with an academy = I have managed to establish a contact with top academy in the UK. Had a meeting with them last month and tomorrow I am flying to visit them. Usually academies are very reluctant to working with agents but the man in charge know how pro football works. I am hoping to negotiate a deal where I am exclusive for the academy players for a certain region. I managed to convince the academy director that if he wants his players to get a pro contract an agent is a necessity. They will now look for 4-5 agents to cover most of Europe, hopefully I will have it on paper that I will be their representant in my region. Certain details need to sorted (mostly financial). How do we split the potential profit, in how many steps does the academy get paid, if the player moves to a 3 club do they still get a %, who pays for the travel costs when going on trail etc.

Anyway this puts me in a good position. First of all I will have access to many good young talents so I dont have to travel around and waste time, secondly it is a nice thing to actually help a player (from a poor background) to sign their first pro-contract. As oppose to being a parasite and just chasing $


2. Attacking players with ending contracts = As written before and I think the official statistic from FIFA TMS is that 95% of all transfers done during the summer window 2013 were free agents. In other words if I want to make any dough this winter (believe me I need to) having a couple of players with ending contract will most def help me. So I am contacting players with ending contracts offering my services. Most of these interactions are done by phone were I present myself, what I have done and what I can do. The player is smarter than signing with me directly and says something like this;
"the agent that finds me the best offer I will sign with". This results in several agents working for one single player hoping to come up with the best contract proposal. The situation is difficult because often the player is desperate (in a couple of months he will be out of paycheck) and any concrete planning or strategy is hard to carry out. From my side I demand exclusivity on a market from the player otherwise iam out. The reason is that if several agents work for the same players in one league, eventually the same player will be presented to club several time, and in my world that's unacceptable. I want to maintain good contacts with the clubs !

3. Asking clubs for lists = many European leagues have in the beginning of October played around 10 games in their domestic leagues. This means that more or less they know what they are looking for during the winter window. A mix of cold and warm emails/phonecalls to get that info.


also I receive a lot of emails I have a hard time to answer. Most of them in regards to exam info (read my earlier posts), the rest I will try to answer.

peace       

points & holiday

I am suppose to be on holiday, well if this is holiday I might as well work for the rest of my life... my last sentence of my blog last post: Now I am checking out for a week of holiday... ciao
Well that did not happen, first of all nobody wants to go on holiday in mid Sep. I was more or less begging people to go or if I can visit a buddy abroad. Civilians (using sopranos terminology) are super busy in the early fall, I remember from working in an office myself... So this years holiday I am spending in my flat watching series and sleeping, not exactly france or NYC.

A nice thing though is if you as a football agent go on holiday to any western city and if you are bored it is easy to get your work on. All cities have a football club which you can visit, introducing and pitching your ideas. As mentioned earlier, the football business run on human capital and face 2 face is always the best way to interact. Also from now all my trips through are paid from my company accounts !

My mind is also distracted by the winter transfer window of 2014. This time I am planning to go in well prepared and that means I have some concrete actions that needs to be done. I have them more or less figured out but still my mind is elaborating on how to cary them out. My plan was to start working again in 10 days but 1 week of doing nothing is enough. Example of these points:
- Meeting 3-4 players I want to help
- Signing 1-2 players I feel close enough too
- Meet 7-8 clubs were I want to have a strong connections
- Updating my info pages; linkedin, new email, website, FIFA register etc.
- Focusing on players that are more likely to move in January (contract ends)


Had dinner with my whole family the other day, through my brothers laptop we all sat down and watched my striker play 94 minutes against a top side. I have never seen my dad (usually gives rats ass) so excited watching footy. Myself as well, its extremely hard to be objective. A nice dinner and feeling anyway..

my first window, Q1

Officially I have been an FIFA Players' Agent for 4 months although the first one does not really count. My federation screwed up and it took me over 5 weeks to get all thinks sorted after passing the exam. Insurances, FIFA info, company registrations, payment of fees, office arrangements etc. I was up and running early/mid June and since then transfers has been occupying my woken hours (and sometimes even in my sleep)... anyway iam not the type of person looking back and for those readers that want to recap have a look at my old posts...

Sitting at the aiport after a day of meeting the club (invoice and collection of my money) and players (2 of the transfers i did) i feel the last quarter has just flown away. My aim is not to on a personal level reflect on feelings but to present concrete examples and tips/help. This is also the feedback I get from the readers, feelings are perceived differently. But facts stay facts and here a couple of pointers from what I have learned in my first transfer window:

- Agents are often seen as the dark horse in the world of pro football, correctly in many scenarios. But I can tell you that clubs are as eager to f'ck the players over as agents. Also players eager to stab u in the back if a agent/club propose a better alternative. I have had several conversations were club responsibles are shaddy or directly lie. Can be anything from; contract conditions, them dealing with several players simultaneously, amount of required trial days etc.

- My estimation is that 95% of all transfers done are made with 2 middlemen, either 2 agents, one agent one scout. Somebody have the player and the other part the club, standards are 50/50 split. The problem occurs after collecting cash. If you are on the side that does not send the invoice you will most likely not see your half or at least have to hunt it down. Especially if it is a middleman you dont really know or have delt with before..

- Get reference from other agents if the club is liquid and pays, both for your own and players sake. Promising big provisions or wages is easy, even through a signed contract. Actually paying what is obliged is not. The clubs are aware of this powerbalance and some just chose not to pay, basta. They know that going through FIFA and then CAS is a process that takes years so make sure you know first hand that they can and are willing to pay their bills.

- You often sell a player that u do not have representation agreement with. Either through mandate or working for the club. If you want this player to sign for you make sure they do so on the day of signing all other contracts. A player will agree to sell his own mother on signing day. He will be abit more reluctant when everything is sorted...


Now I am checking out for a week of holiday... ciao

Nr 2 and 3

With 10 days left of summer transferwindow 2013 number two and three are done. Even though cash is not huge there are allot of upside to these transfer;

Nr2: more or less one month ago I wrote about my first failed transfer. Thinking back about it, it was one of most stressful moments of my life I think. Anyway leaving this eastern europe country both me and the player were really upset. In this sketchy world players are always suspicious against agents, deals often break were both club and players are agreed but agents get to greedy. I assured the player this was not the case and I promised him I will not sleep until this was delivered. Said and done, it is a top player so the interest has been quite intense, but always failing at the finishing line for different reasons. At one point I felt the collaboration was doomed and jinxed. 

Anyway, Monday we signed for the vice champion of a scandinavian side. Money is not as good but the sporting challenge is far better. Players is super happy ! 

Nr3: young striker with good cv were I got mandate from an agent. Speaking and emailing lots of directors in my geographic region. Strangely enough the interest was quite small, even to the point we decided to send the player on a weeks trial. He did well but the club felt he was to similar in style too the other forwards they already got. Transfer deadline closing in I took more desperate measures. Finding out from a journalist friend a clubs key striker was out on injury the rest of the season. So I direclt text the sporting director (I already presented the player 1 month before with no response), suddenly they are very interested and the Director is super friendly. I play ball and very quickly we agree terms. We even sign electronically through mandate and scan the contact.

the contracts on both players are quite short which makes the potential future commission better. First of all i got ok paid for such a short contract, secondly if they perform we are in good position. Both salary and commission wise... 

Although the biggest upside to this is that I achieved my own personal goal, 3 transfer my first window. Now sixth gear and maybe maybe I can make a fourth one... 

the art of waiting

generally there are far more upsides to my newly acquired occupation but there is one thats is eating me from the inside = waiting. 

I dont know if its not in my nature to patiently just wait for a counter response but its pure torture. I think for most new agents the big obstacle its the opposite; be out there, aggressive and just interact without thinking. Suddenly you are in a environment were you have to speak to players, agents and sport directors you usually just read about in the sports-pages. If you overanalyze this and act to humble in most cases you will be eaten. In one of my first posts I wrote that humbleness is something i have left behind me, this rule was for me has not been hard to act upon. Whats much harder is to try to stop myself to get the latest info, news or total control of situation. These are not negative things but the constant stress of seeking total control can make you look desperate. Also on a personal level its not a nice feeling. This "habit" is definitely a downside that I will have to learn to cope with. Both for my clients sake and for my psychological health. 

An concrete example is that I would guess I press update on my email, downwards swipe on wattsup and viber at least 200times/day. 

peace

a day

one of the mostly frequently asked questions i get when peeps that find out iam a football agent;
- so how do you actually spend your days ?

Well, not much different from what I used to do on a day off from my previous finance job.
There is no hour I have to be at the office but i try to wake up around 09 (to have some sort of self discipline). First thing is i check all my communications tool (sms, email, whatsup, viber etc) then still lying in bed quick read through all headlines. An hour later iam in the office and days when i am not travelling are very much relaxed. We chat about footy, transfer, booze and girls. Drink heavy amounts of coffey and once/twice a week we sit down in a organized meeting. Agenda is deals that are closer, we give each other tips on how to handle different scenarios. We "lay puzzles", often one agent has contact with a club that is looking for a specific player or vice versa. Through an excel sheet I created (some use of my old work) we then try to match supply with demand. First step is if I personally have that player profile, secondly if none of the agents within our network then lastly we go to outside agents we know and cooperate well with.

Between these chats, headlines readings and result follow up:
- Work on securing those deals that are close by travelling, phone calling and emailing.
- Lay out leads on players and clubs through cold email and calls
- Scan through other agencies players lists, in order to find people that have good players to collaborate with
- Browse through all the "junk email" you get only by being listed on the FIFA website. Mainly scouts from all over the world emailing me that they found the new Drogba in africa or Messi in south america.
- Deleting all the email from countless players saying that they are proffesional and want help with there career.

midway

so the window closes in more or less in 4-5 weeks, we have a passive but stable first half behind us. Statistically 65% of all goals scored are in the 2nd half, hope its the same for agents. 

Three potential transfers are now in the pipeline:

1. Eastern european club desperately looking for center back. 5 days ago I read in the paper that one their key defender have fled the country refusing to play for the club anymore (apparently he is close to the small club in barclays premier league).  The Sport Director is a young guy I have had some sporadic contact with since the beginning of the window. Quick text to the guy if he is looking for a replacement ? Yes, please send me someone to analyze. Problem is that the defender I have is way to good and expensive for this club so again I cant take any of "my" own players. My very good colleague (who was a sport director him self over 10 years) have really close ties to his old club. We discuss different possibilities. One of the players in his old club has a long and expensive contract, real burden for the club. My colleague calls the club up saying he can help to sell him (for a fee of course), simultaneously I pitch the same player to the easter european club. Both sides get a positive answer, so now we are sending the player for a 3-4 day trial. Long way to go but if he performs and they decide to sign, some nice cash for both of us. 

2.  Most of the players I present I have exclusivity for in a certain region, so is the case with a young striker. The kid has played around 30 games in Eredivisie but the majority coming in from the bench. Hard sell a profile like this, stats not super impressive and little video highlights. Anyway its worth a try, and I send out of those mass emails to clubs in scandinavian. One picks up the lead and we are more or less ok with all contract demands, again this is more a trail and the potential money is small since I split with the agent that has the representation contract. Star agents would probably not even bother working for this kind of dough, but naturally iam not in that position. 

3. Last week I wrote about my first "failed". Since me returning home and giving the player my word that I will find him an even better offer I have worked 24/7 on this. Again we are looking much towards easter europe for obvious reasons. Last summer the player signed a big 3 year contract with a massive side in Turkey. Unfortunately the club went bust and only paid him 1 out of 12 months of the first contractual year, club agreed to let him free. Free agent is usually a huge advantage (almost a must in this competitive environments), problem is that he refused to play the last 4 months. In other words he has not played a real competitive game in over 6 months, club has no clue on his current status. 

A speak to a agent I really get along with the other day and I mention his name, it happens he sold his right defender to top club in the same league were we got tricked. I give him mandate for the club and he calls up his contact proposing the player. 

This would be a dream scenario, more money than last time and also the player signs with a much better side but in the same country as the fucks that fooled us. Unfortunately my gut feeling says chances are small.

to be continued... 

1 out of 2

My first transfer : 

8 weeks ago I was in Belgium negotiating a transfer from a brazilian right back to a club in Jupiler League. One of our agents representing the right back was speaking to the club about him, simultaneously I had established a contact with sport director. Even though I knew that the particular rightback was not available we decided I should fly down giving them the news face to face and at the same time pitch what I/agency can do for them. Overall it went good. The club is under new sporting management and they are totally revising their "project", which always means lots of transfers in and out. Since my visit I have been helping them in both selling players but also acquiring players. 

2 weeks ago through email I send a striker which we could arrange cheap. The Sport Director got really excited but the trainer puts in his veto due to tactical team set up. We speak on the phone and he says; "shit, the league starts in 3 weeks and we are still missing a goalkeeper, right back and striker". Since I had already presented more or less every single player from our agency I had to come up with something new. Few days before this a Danish agent called me and we chatted for a while, I remembered him saying he represented a good right back so I call him up and explain the situation. 5 min later the club has an email with full presentation of the player and 5 min after that we have green light, they want him. Two weeks of quite tough negotiations, the hard work was to convince the player this is the optimal move for him. 

During the weekend we agreed on the last details, Monday signed. My first transfer done ! 

My first "failed" transfer:

Without being an agent it is not hard to figure out what which team is looking for. This was also the case for a newly promoted side in Eastern Europe, having the contact info the Director of Sports we had some shallow contact over the last couple of weeks. I sent him one of our players that I knew would fit their profile and required position (so did 50 other agents as well). I try to differencify my email presentations and this time the guy picks up the lead. He calls me up and says they are interested but not for the money I suggested. We negotiate for 48 hours and agree on all the essentials, net salary, bonus structure, length, clauses etc. Next step is to purchase tickets for the player and so they do. The plan is that we will arrive  on Monday evening, Tuesday we go to club hq for meet and great and Wednesday morning medical and sign in the evening when I fly home. Everything feels 100%. 

Standards are that the club sends a draft of the contract a couple of days before (so my lawyers can look it through) and if there are still some changes to be done. Then at the actual signing you never read the "real" contract it self but you only make sure it is exactly the same as the draft that you received in beforehand. I ask for the draft last Friday afternoon directly after we got the plane tickets reserved for us. Sport Director says they will be sent directly. Saturday morning I wake up and see no contract in my mail box, I call him up. "Sorry, our lawyers dont work over the weekend and there is no way we can translate now. I promise you will have it upon arrival".  Since the club already put on their website that we are arriving and they took whole cost of flight+hotel I chose to believe the guy. Monday we arrive no contract, during that day I ask him 8 times through phone, sms, email. Tuesday morning no contract and I am starting to get seriously pissed of, at one point I scream at him. Me and player go out to have lunch and discuss. I tell him that my suspicion is that something is fishy. Together we decide to put a ultimatum to the club, we want the contract before 16.00 (I need time to send it to my office and proof read it my self). We wait in the hotel but no sign from the club, at this point I realize there is no way the deal will go through. I start to think about next step and how to minimize dark headlines. Wednesday we dont do the medical but in the afternoon Sport director, translator/lawyer shows up. Even though I want to rip his head of I do my best to keep myself and my player calm, last thing we want is negative headlines. Without actually saying it both parties understand deal off. Me and player go to sturbucks, he is super frustrated and disappointed, I assure him that I did everything I could and from the bottom of my heart I will find and even better offer for him. 

On my flight back I analyze the situation and come to the following conclusion. Probably the Director, wanted us to do the medical and then 1 hour before our flight he would through a contract on us saying we sign now or never. A contract of course with different terms than we agreed. 

 

PL's Wyscout feedback

This was sent to me from a buddy that reads my blog/twitter, he asked me to publish it here:

Camp Nou, Barcelona

July 4, 2013. 

With plans to become a full-time football agent next year, I decided to invest in a pass for the WyScout Forum in Barcelona this week - the event that markets itself as the secret transfer network for the world's biggest agents & football clubs. 

Designed to be "speed-dating" for the football transfer industry, sporting directors are sat on school tables marked with their club flag, waiting for agent after agent to sit down & offer them players or find out what they are looking for. 

Nobody is here to be introduced. If they don't know who you are already, you are not worth knowing.

Held in the bowels of Barcelona FC's Camp Nou, the Forum is purposely organised a couple of days after every transfer window opens. However, the problem with that idea is any agent worth their salt has been working on transfers for the last two months, so in reality the notion of beginning negotiations in early July is ridiculous.

What is important here, though, is status. What hotel suite are you staying in? Where did you get your suit? Who's that blonde you've bought with you? How much commission have you made so far this window? These were just a few of the conversations I overheard among the agents in the hotel foyer.

Shattered Illusions

Everyone talks business. That's all they are here for. During one of the boring presentations on the opening day, I found myself sat next to a Chief of Player Recruitment at a mid-table Premier League club, so I ignored the tedious panel discussion on the stage, and instead concentrated on spying on a text conversation he was having on his iPad with a well known UK agent.

Agent: "I hate to say it mate, but I've had another offer in for XXX XXX XXX (England international striker)

PL

trends & sour soup

now having spoken to quite a few players and agents the trend of the traditional representation management is clearly changing. Its yesterdays news that the average football player dont stay with the same agent the entire career and that the science/skill of career management is slowly diminishing... the phenomenon where a agent spots a player in its teenage years and helps to plan and build their entire career and afterlife is very rare.

A part of the reason is that the binding FIFA regulations says that a representation contract between a player/agent can maximum be valid for 2 years, naturally this gives other agents and players more room for action. Secondly (and this also common knowledge not me trying to be a professor), the global transfermarket nowadys is a so called "clubs market". Simply it means that it is much more the clubs that determine the rules than the players. Market is drenched with free agent players and most take the first offer handed to them. This has an direct impact for agents. Players now are smarter than signing with an agent for 2 years and indirectly excluding them from all other offers that the other agents can arrange.
= Therefore most players before the windows open, tell all agents something like this: "the agent that can come with best offer for me I will sign with"


+ recently I got mixed up in a so called "sour soup with too may chefs". It all started with a friendly phone call asking for help and now its quite out there in newspapers, player refusing to speak to agents and club directors only working with certain people... more on this in a couple of days when the heat is gone

transfer window summer 2013

my first transfer window opens on Monday less than 1 week from now, my hopes are that Iam going to be busy but at this point I'm not sure:

- Most clubs/agents start to prepare for the windows 6-8 weeks before it actually opens. Combination of my inexperience and that it took a f'cking month for my federation to issue my license makes me feel unprepared. If I make any transfers it will mostly be of the "pussle type", a club looks for a certain position and either I have the mandate of that specific profile from either an agent colleague or a club.  And maybe also the "last minute transfer" were a player gets injured or sold last minute...

- Statistically it usually takes around 4 full windows before an newly licensed agent makes their first transfer. This statistic is slightly miscued due to many new agents dont become active directly.


On top of that the fact that the boss of the network which I am part of pushes me allot... and as I at some point wrote the star agents already started, the word is that Jorge Mendes has cashed in between 15-20 Mil € so far this summer...



Pressure is on

tips from the coach

In a way it feels ridiculous to start giving peeps tips, i have only been doing this for a little bit more than a month. During this short time a have picked up a thing or two: 

1. Sport management (I prefer the term agent business) purely runs on human capital, its all about personal trust and who u know. Even to that degree that the product it self happens to be humans, anyway I cant think of another industry were personal relationships are so fundamental (I could image maybe the narcotics trade).  

A big obstacle to overcome is getting in touch with the clubs and the responsible person for the transfer budget. This person has different names depending on geographic location:

- Sport Director (western europe) 

- Manager (often UK)

- President (eastern europe)

- GM or general manager (the states)

although titles differ they have one thing incommon; its f*cking impossible to get hold of them. Try finding Galliani's email adress and phone nr on acmilan website... This has been a major problem for me till I came up with a small trick. 

= Instead of calling the reception of the club asking for the GM's contact info, I tell them I am agent that represent a club that want to buy their worst and most expensive player. Voila ! 

2. Be aware of the 2 business card standard. Most agents but also GM's have 2 business cards. One which they give to people they dont want to be bothered by with only adress and land line nr to the reception and one with personal email, cell phone and bbm. 

I travelled to another country to meet a GM at a club once, 1 week later I wanted to call him looked at the business card I was so happy with receiving and it was less info on it than the yellow pages. 

Q & A's

I have received a dussin of emails and a similar amount of PM's with question and feedback from my twitter/blog. Many questions are very similar (obviously some of my texts lack in clarity) but there are also quite a few general wonderings in regards to my line of work. 

Everybody with interest in sport agent world (it being a hobby or a full time profession) know it is very much a closed environment. I find this strange and directly negative and therefore willing to share knowledge I never received. I want to point out that I am not doing this in order to use this to my own personal advantage, opposite I think the advantage itself is created through the transparency.

Here we go:

1. FIFA considering cancelling the current license system:

=  I have heard/red this as well. Before applying for taking the exam I did extensive research, speaking to my federation, current agents and "experts". All of the agree that this is not realistic to happen in any near future, the main reason is solely that FIFA has not come up with any good alternative that all FIFA members will accept. 

2. Many agents work without having a license, do I really need one? 

= My opinion and experience, YES. Around 80% clubs/agents/players I have been in touch with has asked me for proof of license. Mostly since I act in within UEFA which compared to the rest of confederations is more developed/strict. Turn it around and I would only be able to capitalize on around 20% of the business I have created. In all leagues were there is serious money I would say this is a necessity, so if u are not waiting for your parents trust fund to kick in or have a another income source my answer is yes. 

3. What prerequisites and how much time to I need to spend on studying?

= Each association determined their on prerequisites (on top of what FIFA requires) so I cant answer this. The topic of studying is of course very individual, i studied around 100 hours. See earlier post on this subject...

4. How much savings do I need to have before starting as a FIFA Players' Agent? 

Stage 1 = around 4000€ (required documents+exam fees+license fees+insurance fees) and ofcourse if u quit your job as I did, personal cost of living.

Stage 2 = Statistically very few agents make any business the first 2-3 windows, due to various reasons. So You need to be liquid enough to pay your personal bills during this period. 

Stage 3 = start of by yourself or in a already established agency/group/network. If u decide to start yourself there are allot of costs, mostly associated to travel but also huge phonebills, office etc.

I chose to second option, giving up a huge % of my commission in order to get all costs covered.     

5. I only speak one language is this a major obstacle?

No, as long as it is English. FIFA can prepare all questions in english (i wrote them that way due to 75% study material is in english). As in all businesses language is here even more important, I speak 3 languages and will take upon a fourth after the summer window closes. 

6 . General tips on how to become a football agent.

Make up your mind and really go for it, often the worst thing that happens if you fail is not the end of the world. In my scenario; loose 4000€, loose 3-4 months in my already monotonous life, give up my old job/career, loose face etc. 

These were the most frequently asked questions. Hope the answers give some good insight, and as I wrote I will do my best to help out. Please only be patient when it comes delivery time... 

peace 

frequent flyer miles

sitting in my flat waiting for my airport transport to arrive.. In 7 days it happens that I will fly to 3 different destinations:

1. Eastern Europe: spending 5 days. Meeting the sport director of 2 clubs (one director is kind of slippery so now I am forced to just show up hoping he want throw me out), main purpose here is to pitch myself and the agency on how we can help them with the summer transfers (in/out). 

Secondly I'm meeting a couple of fellow agents just for a coffee and meet and greet, lastly going to the big game on saturday !

2.Benelux: One day trip to visit the sporting director of a mid-size club, outbound flight 05.55 = bbuuu Negotiating the transfer of a brazilian right back. Presenting the agency organisation and also pitching players for 4-5 positions. The sporting director is a old favorite player of mine so I am excited 

3. Another continent: Hard to determine if this one is biz or plez...

also I just realized that I can forget any type of summer vacation this year, had thoughts on france and NYC...

invisible hand

Things are moving slowly forward, settling in very well in this new environment. Iam not only thinking about my new office/colleges/network but also in the way it have affected me in a non professional way. 

- Through being extremely (iam surprised with myself) perseverant I have managed to get in touch with a few (5) sporting directors. They have asked me for what positions they are looking for in the summer window, I make the research and present them to the clubs. The say si/no and I get in touch with the respective agent = get part of the agent commision. The difficult part in this is, "the invisible hand" between supply (me+players) and demand (clubs), the tention of not being to eager (high price for club) and me having lots of options for the player (beating up the financial part). quite thrilling I have to say.. 

- Unfortunately there a few backsides, as soon as my email and phone nr are up on FA and FIFA website I have just been drown in weird phone calls/sms/email. Everything from players wanting a club to business scams to single bangladesh ladies searching for love.. Last night again I got a phone call from Benin, Africa at 04.30  

Big up to SAF, greatest manager in history

#its happening

writing my first post i thought to myself it could be interesting for me to backtrack a big change of direction in my life. From making up my mind -to actually taking this decision- quiting my office job-telling everybody close to me-process start-flying away to study in isolation-writing and passing the exam. 

Also since the football agent world is a closed environment these texts can come to use some day. 

Anyway, its happening. In 6 days I have:

-recieved my license (finally)

-My national FA updated its agent lists

-FIFA updated their website with my contract info (of course they screwed it up)

-Arranging a office

-Negotiating to be part of the biggest agency in my country

Now that i managed to sell myself (to be part of the agency) the pressure is on for me to start making transfers, there are actually quite a few ways of making money as an sport-agent:

1. Selling your own signed players

2. Selling other agents players through market exclusivity 

3. Selling players on the request of a club

4. Negotiating/Re-negotiating contract on behalf of a club

5. Acquiring players on behalf of clubs

My plan is to make as much business as possible, mostly by point 2. 

A funny sidenote is that within one hour  and now everyday from FIFA publishing my name and contact info I recieved around 15 similar email to this:

Dear Sir,

With much honour  and due respect to write you.

This is to inform you that we operate a football academy in Benin republic in west Africa. We have well-trained, young, strong and skillful players, we need your assistance to get contracts for our players in clubs in your country, we are ready to take them to your country for a practical test session to determine their abilities in football play and we are  ready to bear the costs for the journey if you will invite us for this purpose.

We look forward to working with you for mutual benefits. Any enquiries are welcome.

Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.

MOHAMMED MAHADI.

NB; you can communicate with us in any of the following languages: ENGLISH,ARABIC OR FRENCH.

zzzzZZZzzz

The headline summarizes my mood the last couple of days, the waiting is turning me into a couch potato.. Still, 17 days after writing the exam I have not received the license, which enables me to act as a player agent. And as usual dealing with FIFA/associations nobody knows anything...
Usually I would just give the establishment the middle finger and do it anyway, but my contact person at the federation strictly warned me about this and that they easily can force me to redo the exam. It would be just stupid to gamble at this point.

Not exactly the start I imagined, hopefully my next post will be all about: players signings-travelling-negotiations-$-pre paring for the summer transfer window-footy games-transfer speculations


Bare with me  

three quarters of a man

now 11 days after one of the most reliving phonecalls of my life (is it only me that totally replaced the happy feeling with only a sense of relief). Ten days in my world is usually allot to just kick back but the incompetence of FIFA and my association has forced me to this ineffectivity... being used to a quite fast paced business environment I am shocked with these two organisations incompetence. Three points have to be presented:

1.Pre-exam "filing and collecting admissions forms"
- This was just a pathetic experience. Fifa have some "prerequisites" they force on all associations/federations, on top of that Iam not sure if my national is retarded. You need to provide documents such as, criminal record, proof of residence, letter of intent, cv, company registrations certificate, bankruptcy etc. My federation made 2 weeks of my life even more miserable due them asking for documents I did not even know existed, for example a document from my local borough saying that I am capable of taking care of myself...

2. Studying for the exam:
The structure of language and outline is just terrible, makes me frustrated even to think about ut. All FIFA documents are written in chapters, articles and paragraphs. In other words quite similar structure to judicial documents, not very reading friendly. Its clear the original documents are old, and that every year FIFA/associations are trying to update them which creates a strange mix of used wording.
If You have any questions in regards to what you study there is NOBODY to ask. Ofcourse any old examps or questions are not provided for...

3. After-exam
After going through point 1 and 2 and passing u just want to start ! This of course is not impossible, according to my association it is not enough to sign insurance and all other documents (I wrote about this in a earlier post) u have to wait until the license is printed and delivered by registered post.
FRUSTRATING, also I know that other candidates that passed the exam already have their license which in fact gives them a head start and me lying on my couch counting money lost...


If anyone is considering going through this process feel free to write to me, I wil help

showmethemny@gmail.com

blank paper

aight, so how do I start ?!

now that almost all paperwork/insurances/code of conducts are signed and my license will be issued in a couple of days i need to come up with a way to attack ...

how do I get tips of players, how do I approach, how do I get in touch with club officials/scouts/agents/players? Its not like CR7 has his phonenr in the yellow pages. Do I need to change to private nr now ? lots of q's ...


my take upon it is that since the majority of agents are either old player or coaches I should be able to outcompete them in street smartness/professionalism/negotiating skills/languages/business mind/intellekt...


piece of cake



by the way if any want to write my email is showmethemny@gmail.com or holla at me on twitter

Licensed FIFA Players' Agent

according to the regulations you are not even allowed to call yourself that. The correct title is Player Agent licensed by the .......... Association.

A quick recap of last weeks happenings:
- Flew back home from my second hometown after 3 weeks of a strict study regiem. Total isolation and at least 10 hours of intense reading everyday.
- Wednesday, serious nerves. Could not sleep at all for 2 days.
- Thursday morning, wrote the exam.
- Thursday afternoon till friday mid day = 35 hours of torture not knowing the result.
- Friday, got the call. Was so nervous I almost forgot how to make the swipe motion and could not answer my phone. 10 minutes later, first drink in 8 weeks.
- Now (sunday) woke up after drinking a whole ocean but happy



first reflections after quarter1-2013:
- leaving my job and studying for 3 months was quite stressful (and boring)
- playing everything on just one card makes you nerv wreck, strategically not a wise decision
- hard work paid off


peace

countdown - 1 week

in exactly seven days I will be sitting in my flat asking myself whether I can from now on introduce my self as;
- Player agent licensed by the ...... association

or having the following conversation;
- hi (me)
- hi (avg joe)
- so what do you do ? (me)
- iam an account working for deloitte, you ? (avg joe)
- well, iam a football agent (me)



Thinking about it, this is what i desire and next 7 days will be even more dedicated on achieving it. Hopefully next week I will be 5000$ poorer (license cost), but 5000x more excited ...



/showmethemny

is this what i signed up for - 2 weeks to go

my third post on this blog (why do i feel like girl when using words like post/blog) will unfortunately be quite the opposite of what i want this page to reflect. Negative, dull and unexciting.. the reason for this is shortly that iam in serious study mode. Due to me leaving my old office life behind me both my self esteem and wallet seriously need myself to get pass the exam !


After some research and many phone calls (associations and other fifa player agents) I realized becoming a football agent is not as easy as I first thought. Most of the feedback is that the exam is extremely hard, passing rates on avg 5-10% depending on association. A turkish player agent told that in the autumn 2012 exam 140 attended 2 passed, another agent told me he studied full time for 3 months and wrote his own FIFA encyclopedia for himself before attending !

This resulted in me giving myself strict rules for my 3 study-weeks:
-no substances
-at least 6h concentrated study/day
-total isolation


cant remember i once putting in a similar effort during my uni years


--::: this blog is used as a platform of personal expression, in other words irrelevants such as gramar and page outline will remain irrelevants :::--

go-allez-vamos-dawaj-heja

2day it is exactly 3 weeks until the FIFA player agent exam = follow the journey of a football supporter becoming an agent..



/ Showmethemny