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...