Football Agents – The role
I have been contacted by some new agents asking what the role of an agent REALLY entails. Reality has started to kick in 😂. Funny enough it’s a question I have been asked several times over the years. I’ve been asked if I own an academy 🤔, if I work for FIFA 🤔🤔 and if I coach football players 😅🤔🤔🤔.. Nope nope and nope.
Strictly speaking on paper, a football agent is a football player representative who handles almost every aspect of the player’s playing career allowing him or her to focus on the pitch. Some do the bare minimum; things like finding clubs and negotiating contracts, whereas others go all out.
In the West African market for instance, being an agent involves so much more. A lot of players need financial support and if they are not with a financially sound academy, this may fall on the agent. A shocked Belgian agent called to tell me he’d been asked to buy football boots by a player he was representing in Nigeria. I exclaimed, “Only football boots?.. Lucky you!”.. I explained that it kinda goes with the territory 🤷🏽♀️.
I fully understand why the new agents are asking questions because putting theory into practice isn’t always plain sailing. I’m sure many of us had that “culture shock” of moving from lecture theatre 🎓 to courtroom 👩🏽⚖️ or to construction site 🚜 or to operating theatre room 🥼🩺✂️depending on your profession. I remember the first time I walked into an industrial boiler at a power station, I yelped, “no one told me there’d be this much dust” 🙆🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️. The response I got was, “welcome to DRAX” Drax Group 😫.
Anyway, there really isnt a one-size-fits-all for what an agent does. I have been in the industry a long time and I have seen football agents that offer different services.
I find that working as an agent I have to wear many hats because there are so many different skills required. Sometimes, I wish I was an octopus 🐙😂, but having able assistants helps because you cannot do everything 😉. I also count myself lucky that I work with very calm, caring, respectful, loyal, hard-working and level-headed players (who graduated from the Real Sapphire academy in Lagos) that give me peace and make life easy for me 😇😌🤗🥰. These are very important traits, in addition to talent.
A non-exhaustive list of some of the wider issues I have had to tackle (as an agent) over the years include disciplinaries, owed salaries, wedding planning 👰🏽♀️, blackmail 😣, contact from the BBC, injury/liaising with surgeons, marital/relationship breakdowns, assistance with visa and passport applications, planning investments/buying property, mentoring, helping players settle into new locations, fines by customs for failure to declare funds.
The one thing I can’t deny and is hopefully obvious is that…. I do what I love and I love what I do ❤️🫶🏽
As always please feel free to share your own experiences below.
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