Do you Need a Football Agent?

When a player is approached, one of the first question to be asked if he or she have a football agent? Sometimes, when a professional sportsperson meets young players or their families and asks them about their agent, they simply reply back with a question on why they need a football agent or what the football agent can offer them.

The idea of footballers working with football agents had not been seen as paramount in the late 90’s and the people who act as such were parents, families, friends and close relatives.

In a report by FIFA, the income for agents increased to 452.16 million euros in 2021, there were 17,945 transfers involving professional players in the transfer management system with 3,545 (20%)involving at least one agent. Infact, there can be no international transfers without the involvement of agents. It is assumed that behind successful footballers like Cristiano Ronaldo,Lionel Messi,Mohamed Salah, Ngolo Kante, Victor Moses, Gareth Bale and the host of others are agents who do the underground essential work in their favour. They work to secure the best deals for these players during transfers. They aren’t in the limelight like the footballers but perform their function when necessary.

so, in this post, let’s discuss issues related to football agents that you should know.

Who is a Football Agent?

A football agent can simply be identified as a person who manages a footballer, procure and negotiate employment and endorsement opportunities as well as get a fee in return.

An agent can be termed as a representative/intermediary who handles the interests of a single footballer or many footballers in order to give them the best guidance in all aspects of the sport. An agent isn’t restricted to only one player and can handle as many players as possible due to their experience, quality of their existing managed players as well as the quality of contracts and endorsement secured for them.

Aside from the business aspect, a football agent can handle both personal and social aspects of a footballer.

In other ways, the fee is termed football agent commission which is a total 20% of the endorsement, earnings and contract negation signed on behalf of the player. Agents are people who may work individually as a sole business or as employees in a large organization.

What are the roles of the Football Agent?

It won’t be an exaggeration to say that without football agents, there will be a lot of mess, poor tactics and unchecked fraudulent activities in the world of football. Their role has become greatly fundamental to footballers activities and have contributed to making football a billion pound sport in the world.

The summarized roles and duties played by Football agents include; management of careers, negotiation of transfers/ contracts, organizing TV, radio and digital media appearances, financial planning and budgeting, public relations, securing lucrative endorsement and sponsorship deals, granting access to journalists to interview players welfare services as well as disciplinary issues or other related matters to the player.

Agents, based on a player’s career and value in the world of football, sort out their sponsorship opportunities, decide how the earnings of a player are invested in the responsibilities on ground and handle all necessary transfers activities.

Furthermore, Football agents perform their roles and duties under the guides, rules and regulations FIFA and all other bodies in charge. They ensure that strict infrastructure is applied in order not to leave the footballers vulnerable in the world of football.

How to become a football agent

Becoming a football agent is a demanding job and building a successful career requires seriousness. Although there is no professional exam or course to make you qualified for the job but requires extensive knowledge and the understanding of business management, contract law and other educational qualifications. All the aforementioned can give you a push in the right direction.

On a final note, this underestimated profession- football agent, by so many, drives football or any other sport from being in chaos to a great form of orderliness.

Football agents may often fall under criticism based on their decisions, but these faceless people perform complicated tasks to keep the football sport on track. Without any iota of doubt, agents hold an essential and extraordinary place in football.

#footballtrials #footballagent