When a transfer window looms, football agents are often thrust into the limelight – often by their design. Representing the best players in the sport, football agents have the ability to shift the tectonic plates of power between clubs.
These so-called ‘super agents’ pull the strings throughout the year to ensure their clients get a move to their favourite clubs or get a lucrative contract at their current clubs, bagging a fat paycheck for themselves in the process.
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In short, they are the power-brokers in football. So much that many leading clubs make it a point to have healthy relationships with agents.
How do football agents make money?
In a nutshell, the rule of thumb as far as agents’ fees go is – “You get paid when your footballer gets paid”. The agents make money through 2 ways mainly – by brokering a transfer deal and by the representation of their clients.
While the agents get paid 10% of the total sum of a transfer deal including their player generally (the numbers may vary as per the importance of the deal for the clubs), they are also entitled to receive between 4% and 10% of their clients’ playing contract. This is excluding the endorsement deals they manage to sign for their players (of which also they receive about 4-10%).
To put it in perspective, if a player makes $4.5 million a year from his playing contract his agent stands to earn that sum in about 10 years. This is excluding commission from his endorsements and transfers. Also, this is for just one client!
Let’s now take a look at some of the biggest football agents / agencies and their clients:
#20 Thomas Brookes – IFM
The International Football Management (IFM) agency founded by Thomas Brookes is one of the key agencies in football, boasting the likes of David Silva and Santi Cazorla as their major clients. The agency received a windfall when David Silva extended his lucrative contract at Manchester City till 2019 recently.
IFM have a wide network of operations and works with players, coaches, clubs and associations throughout Europe, Australia, the Middle East, Asia and South America.
Brookes had also worked with Nicklas Bendtner in the past, when the Danish striker was looking for a move away from Arsenal.
19) Sports Entertainment Group (SEG)
Like IFM, SEG also have a wide network of operations across several countries and boast a clientele of about 300 footballers.
Some of the premier clients of SEG include Robin van Persie, Thomas Vermaelen, Kevin Strootman and Memphis Depay. In fact, SEG stood to gain substantially in the transfer of Memphis Depay to United.
18) Darren Dein
Darren Dein is the son of former Arsenal chairman David Dein and is an unpopular figure among the Gunners as he engineered the exits of Cesc Fabregas, Robin Van Persie, Emmanuel Adebayor, and Gael Clichy from Arsenal.
He still represents Cesc Fabregas, Gael Clichy and, Alex Song, who recently moved to Russia from FC Barcelona. Dein was also a close aide of Thierry Henry and was the best man at his wedding.
17) Grupo Santos Idub
Grupo Santos Idub is another major footballing agency which boasts a client roster that contains the names of Xabi Alonso, Samuel Eto'o and Mikel Arteta. Samuel Eto’o, who was once the highest-paid footballer in the world with Anzhi Makhachkala, is one of their most important clients.
Incidentally, Euro 2016 star Antoine Griezmann was also represented by them a while back before the Frenchman decided to axe the agency.
That would have come as a major disappointment to them since Griezmann is being mooted with a high-profile move away from the Vicente Calderon next season. Even then, Grupo Santos remains a major player in the field of football agents.
16) Base Soccer Agency
Founded by Leon Angel who was one of UK’s first agents to be licensed by the FA, Base Soccer Agency has several former footballers and experts working on behalf of their clients.
Some of their major clients are Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Gary Cahill, Leighton Baines and Aaron Lennon. Base Soccer now represents more than 100 players, both at home and overseas, and also works on behalf of managers (eg. Arsene Wenger, Roy Hodgson etc) and clubs.
15) Andrea Pastorello
Italian agent Andrea Pastorello is a key player in the transfer market as well as at the time of contract renewals, for he boasts the likes of Giuseppe Rossi, Nani, Morgan De Sanctis and Patrice Evra as his major clients.
He has a strong presence in Serie A and was behind the contract renewals of Antonio Candreva, Samir Handanovic (both Inter Milan) and Mario Pasalic (AC Milan) recently.
14) Jerome Anderson – SEM Group
Jerome Anderson is a controversial agent in English football, notorious for breaking the pre-contract agreement John Obi-Mikel had with Manchester United to take him to Chelsea. He has also represented the likes of Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp during their heydays.
Though he is not the force he once was, the former banker has the likes of Kieran Gibbs, Micah Richards, and Axel Witsel in his rolls.
13) Giuliano Bertolucci
Giuliano Bertolucci is one of the most influential Brazilian agents in European football and has several key partnerships with Iranian agent Kia Joorabchian. Bertolucci and Joorabchian represent Lazio’s Felipe Anderson and also Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho together.
Bertolucci is also the agent of Chelsea’s Oscar and David Luiz and, PSG’s Marquinhos. He was also chosen to represent Italian club Inter Milan in the negotiations for Santos striker Gabigol which culminated successfully and netted him a handsome figure.
12) Pere Guardiola
More famous for being the brother of managerial genius Pep Guardiola, Pere is an extremely important football agent in his own right. Predictably, he manages his brother’s affairs and also manages some of the best players in the world for lucrative contracts.
Impressively, the Catalan has built his career on the back of 3 principal clients – Pep, Thiago Alcantara and ‘El Pistolero’ Luis Suarez. He was behind Thiago’s last minute change of heart that saw him ditch Manchester United for Bayern Munich and was also the figure behind Arsenal’s controversial bid for Luis Suarez in 2013.
11) Simon Bayliff
Simon Bayliff is much more than just a football agent. He is involved in various other sports including cycling, F1 etc. But in footballing circles, Bayliff is known for his Merseyside connections.
He represents Steven Gerrard and current Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson in addition to Divock Origi. He also has the likes of Tim Howard and Ryan Bertrand as his clients.
10) Wagner Ribeiro
Wagner Ribeiro wields huge influence in Brazil and is chiefly known as the agent of Neymar. He played a key role in bringing young Brazilian footballers to Europe and represents the likes of Hulk and Lucas Moura apart from Neymar.
Ribeiro, who was involved in the shady dealings with third party stakeholders in the controversial Neymar transfer, now stands to earn about €11 million from Neymar’s recent contract renewal at the Camp Nou till 2021.
Lucas Moura, who moved to PSG in 2013, also ensured Ribeiro a pretty sum after the Parisiens coughed up the money, as Manchester United refused to pay such high transfer fee to the agent. With both of them in their prime, Ribeiro is set to benefit further from his 2 principal clients.
9) Fernando Felicevich
Fernando Felicevich has been described by Forbes magazine as the ‘King of South American football’ but it seems like he is the king of Chilean football too. He has built himself a mini empire in Chile and represents the likes of Claudio Bravo and Arturo Vidal.
Felicevich signed up Alexis Sanchez when he was just 15 years old and has engineered his career path from Udinese to Barcelona to Arsenal. Such is his influence that he managed to convince Bayer Leverkusen to sign Chilean midfielder Charles Aranguiz and Inter Milan to snap up Gary Medel. He is known for a parental approach with his players.
He pulled in commissions worth around $22.8 million last year as per Forbes.
8) Jose Otin
The Spanish agent earned around €29 million in transfer dealings in 2015 alone by negotiating transfers for some his clients like Asier Illaramendi, Raul Garcia and Pedro.
Otin was also the man who engineered Javi Martinez’s record move to Bayern Munich in 2012, but his principal client is Fernando Torres, who then British record move to Chelsea netted him a handy sum.
His further moves to AC Milan and Atletico Madrid have also helped fill Otin’s coffers.
7) Thomas Kroth
Kroth was a former German footballer who won the DFB-Pokal thrice and also represented Germany on one occasion before turning to player management.
While young stars like Kevin Volland and Alexander Dragovic are on his roster, his biggest client is German and Bayern No.1 Manuel Neuer. The goalkeeper’s record move to Bavaria from Schalke was brokered by Kroth.
He also represents Shinji Kagawa and Sebastian Rode among others and earned about $22.4 million in commissions.
6) Constantin Dumitrascu – Mondial Group
Constantin Dumitrascu heads the Mondial Sports Management group which is based in Germany and has an extensive client list containing an array of world class footballers – Martial, Ramires, Raphael Varane, Olivier Giroud, Yohan Cabaye, Dunga, Aymeric Laporte, Fernando Llorente and Edinson Cavani.
In fact, Mondial has represented active footballers in contract negotiations totaling over $1 billion in 2015.
They negotiated the multi-million dollar deals for Anthony Martial, Geoffrey Kondogbia, Douglas Costa etc and pocketed a cool sum of $100 million in the process.
5) Pinhas Zahavi
Pinhas ‘Pini’ Zahavi, an Israeli businessman, was probably football’s first super agent. Zahavi, who has served in the Israeli army, is a colossus when it comes to expensive transfer dealings.
Not just for players, but also clubs. Zahavi is widely known as the man who helped Roman Abramovich acquire Chelsea and also enabled Sacha Gaydamak to buy Portsmouth in 2006. He was involved in the record dealings for Rio Ferdinand, Didier Drogba, and Petr Cech, while also managing the likes of Harry Redknapp and Avram Grant at one point.
As of now Carlos Tevez, Javier Mascherano and Joao Moutinho are his major clients.
4) Volker Struth – SportsTotal
German agent Volker Struth has made a name for himself representing some of the biggest stars in the Germany like Toni Kroos, Marco Reus and Mario Gotze. Reportedly, he pulled in a total of $42.4 million from commissions in 2015, and that is excluding the recent deal that saw Mario Gotze head back to Borussia Dortmund.
His agency, SportsTotal, has about 80 clients on their roster, making him a powerful power broker in football.
3) Jonathan Barnett
Jonathan Barnett is a highly divisive figure in football, though he started out by representing cricketer Brian Lara and is also credited with introducing Lennox Lewis to Boxing.
Barnett rose to fame with the controversial transfer of Ashley Cole to Chelsea wherein he was accused of tapping up the left-back while he was at Arsenal. His Stellar Group manages about 15 footballers including Gareth Bale, Joe Hart, Luke Shaw, and Rafael. He was also investigated for tax evasion in 2014.
But Barnett plotted the then world record transfer of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid in 2013, which went a long way in helping him net about $44 million in player contracts in 2014.
2) Mino Raiola
An enigmatic agent who is renown for going to any lengths for his clients, Mino Raiola has found himself elevated to super star status after engineering the transfers of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Paul Pogba (for a world record fee) to Manchester United.
More importantly, the much-anticipated deal for Paul Pogba not only highlighted Raiola’s status as a super agent but also netted him a cool £20 million. Raiola specialises in cultivating an elite stable of footballers which also include Blaise Matuidi, Romelu Lukaku and Mario Balotelli.
He has a proven track record in getting his clients mammoth deals but was also known for enticing Pogba to leave Manchester United in 2012 after the Frenchman was left frustrated by Ferguson’s refusal to give him playing time.
Nevertheless, Raiola has firmly established himself as one of the most powerful men in football.
1) Jorge Mendes
Perhaps the most powerful agent in the world of football is Jorge Mendes. He has been recognised as FIFA’s Agent of the Year multiple times and has a star-studded list of clients of which Cristiano Ronaldo is the crown jewel. The Portuguese’s then world record transfer in 2009 to Real Madrid had in itself made Mendes richer by £4 million.
In the 2014 window alone, Mendes brokered four of the seven biggest deals worldwide (Di Maria, Falcao, Diego Costa, Eliaquim Mangala) from which he earned an estimated £30 million. In fact, he is claimed to be responsible for 68% of the transfers done in Portugal in the 2001-2010 decade. Astonishing!
In what is high praise, Sir Alex Ferguson called Mendes the best agent he ever worked with. He was also instrumental in Peter Lim’s takeover of Valencia and was involved in the recent takeover of AC Milan by a Chinese consortium.
James Rodriguez, Ricardo Carvalho, Pepe, David De Gea and Jose Mourinho are some of Mendes’ clients, which makes him the undisputed king of agents in football.
