The Only Thing A Football Player's Agent (Intermediary) Needs to Start-off A Successful Career

It's perfectly fine if you register as a player's Intermediary (Agent) and certified by the Football Association of your country; with an utra-modern designed office and a well written profile online. That may attract a lot of players to you.

I've even helped some upcoming player's Intermediary create adorable personal brand which gave them presence on a global scale. So calls keep coming from players and their relations,  it makes you feel like your business, and the role you play in it is important… and it probably is.

But if you cannot deliver on the one reason why you exist as an intermediary,  then you are like a salt that has lost it's taste, the true purpose of your business and career.

It doesn’t matter what else you do or what effort you put, your primary purpose is to introduce the player to a club and help him or her negotiate an appreciable pro or a semi-pro contract as the case may be.. That’s what matters. That’s ALL that matters.

If you’re in a player's intermediary business to make money then you must know that the best way to do that is to get players to sign contracts with clubs. The more contract your players sign, the more money you make on commission; the more your business reputation grows on a global scale.

You can’t buy players loyalty with sweet talks or a low price. Player's  loyalty can only be acquired through highly valued service. If you get a player to sign lucrative contract, other players will hear about it and come rushing at your door step.

Yes, it is possible to make some money by reaping off players, without delivering anything tangible to them, but soon players will begin to forment trouble and with bad words of mouth tarnish your image in the industry. The only way however to make a sustainable profit, over the long haul, is to deliver contracts to your players.

So, as a player's Intermediary you should probably put in 99% of your effort in trying to connect with clubs around the World.

The common mistake most upcoming intermediaries do is to put as much effort connecting with other Agents and scouts....getting into networks that doesn't pay, only end up complicating matters for themselves.

The desperate search for foreign Agents and Scouts to help link them to clubs and transfer their players, has made some intermediary fall prey in the hands of fraudsters. And there are indeed, a lot of fraudsters and quacks out there.

The one thing a player intermediary needs to start-off a successful career is a vital connection with clubs. Clubs obliging you to introduce players to them for trials and possibly signing a contract. Do all you can, travel around the world, go the extra mile to search for a club that will oblige you. If you can't introduce a player directly, all by yourself, to a club, then you haven't started. You don't have a business in your hand yet.

The player Intermediary's job isn't as glamorous as people think. It's hardwork driven by passion and experience. The challenges Intermediaries must primary solve for their players are
1. Getting club's trial Invitations
2. Obtaining visa application and documentations required
3. Planning travels after Visa is issued
4. Solving immgration challenges during departure and arrival in a foreign country
5. Negotiations upon negotiations with club's management during trials
6. Interpretation of contract clauses; final agreement and signing of the contract.
7. Disbursement of money to player, taxation, intermediaries fees and previous club compensation

These are areas upcoming Intermediary should quickly get experience on how to go about them. Connection in the embassies, airports are also important, but to start off yourvcareer and business is your connections with clubs.

The Big Question is how can you get vital connections with Clubs?
Clubs doesn't just welcome anybody who said he is a player's Intermediary and possibly show a permit or license from his country FA. Club's work only with Intermediaries (Agent) they have relationship with or are interested in their player.

1. You have to work with a bigger agency on internship basis and let their reputable intermediaries mentor you for a few years. This is probably the easiest way to break into the industry and get lots of clubs' management to know you one-on-one.

2. Talk to some players you know playing for good clubs, let them introduce you to their club management with recommendations that you are trustworthy and can work excellently well in introducing some great talents to the club.

3. Make some visit to club offices, even without appointment...to seek the club coach, secretary or president for discussion of possibly introducing some players to them. This is taking the bull by the horn, it may pay off, but a very expensive venture.

4  Write letters and make cold calls to clubs' admin, seeking if they could allow you introduce some players to them. Just feel lucky and keep seeking, though with several rejections, you may find few that will oblige you, then you can start with that.

5. Post your player's profile on Transfermarkt website, with your contact as the player's Intermediary. But beware, a lot of fraudsters take advantage of profiles online. Only respond to inquiries coming  direct from a club's secretariat.

It is not easy to get a club to respond positively to you, why many upcoming intermediaries avoid making such atempts to clubs....but in these activities lies the success of your career and business.