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.