The Truth about Football Agents in Nigeria | You Already Know Everything, But Read this

Agent/ Scout: Mike Emenalo

 You already know everything! You know that a true Player’s Agent shouldn’t collect money from a footballer before taking him for trials. You know an Agent should earn his commission only when the player succeeds in signing a contract with a club in question. You know the club or Agent should pay for your flight ticket, Accommodation and feeding when they invite you for trials. You know all these things, so why hasn’t your football career kicked off?

How much longer are you going to wait even with all these knowledge? Maybe, you are now doubtful of everyone. May be, you are suspicious of every opportunity that comes your way. You are even scared of your own shadows.

Agent: Chukwudi Emelogu

Why haven’t an Agent come to pick you up; help you obtain an invitation letter from a club abroad; buy the flight ticket; help you obtain visas; help you pack your luggage; take you to the airport and board you into the next available airplane. Why? It’s because it doesn’t work that way.

It means there are intricacies of the football market you don’t yet understand and this lack of understanding or misunderstanding may kill your football dreams forever!

Every market has its dynamics and if you say you want to play strictly by the rules, and then let me blow the whistle for you.

First, if a club needs you that badly as a player, an Agent or Scout must surely come for you - pamper you; take you out for shopping; help you obtain your International Passport and visas – at the end earn a fat commission after you have signed a contract with the club.

Agent: John Shittu

But if no club has ever shown interest in you, then you need an Agent or Sport Marketing consult to help convince a club on your behalf, to even issue an invitation letter and allow you few days (usually four to one week) to show case what you’ve got for them to see.

The club will not put their single Dollar on it; not even ‘Appearance fee!’ At best they could promise to refund you all your Receipted expenses if you scale through the trials.

Some Agents who cares to take the risk may decide to fund the trip for a higher (45% - 60%) commission off the player’s sign-on fee. Only few Agents could do this anyway, especially when the Agent is convinced that he has discovered another “Messi.”

The issue is this, when a Player didn’t succeed after the trials, who bears the loss of all the expenses, which may have run into hundreds of thousands, if not millions? At this time, the Agent is required to pay the player’s flight ticket back to his home country and that’s a huge burden on him – this is why some Agents abandon players abroad.

Agent/ Scout: Churchill Oliseh

Most clubs only invite players they already know and their Scouts are keeping track of their progress, Clubs prefer to invite players that have played for their national team and did well in major competitions such as the Age grade World cups (U16, U20); Olympics soccer event or Africa nation’s cup and the like. Clubs may also invite players that have achieved milestone in the local league.

It isn’t that easy to obtain trials invitation for an uncapped player that doesn’t have verifiable reference or video clips. Otherwise, it is the Agent that will push, using his goodwill to get the club to issue trial invitation letter for the unknown player. This process takes time and money. This is the reason Agents ask some category of players to pay the expenses he may have to incur in carrying out these duties.

I know fraudsters are taking advantage of these market intricacies to defraud innocent footballers in Nigeria. One of the things we do in GreenHunters Sports International is to protect rather young and naïve footballers as much as we could, so they don’t fall into the hands of fraudsters and traffickers parading themselves as player’s Agent.

The big question is: since no club has yet invited you for trials, what steps are you going to take to ensure you move forward and make notable progress in your football career this year? You not need to wait any further, start planning to pay your way to a trial / training camp Abroad; where legitimate Scouts and Agents could see you play.  It is called pulling strategy! If you’re playing and your talent gets the interest of any Scout, then he can invite you for proper club trials. This is what’s possible! Take my advice! GreenHunters Sports International can help you attend some of the best trial camps in the world today. Contact us. Gh.sports1@gmail.com, +234 809 877 2556