Strategic Career Management
Our experience of working with professional players in the Premier League, EFL, and leading academies for over two decades, enables us to build a strategy to deliver our clients’ goals and reach their full potential as a professional footballer. We work with our clients and their families to establish a bespoke strategic career plan, which helps them make decisions that are aligned with achieving their goals. By having a clear understanding of a player’s pathway at their club, we are able to provide the best guidance when it comes to transfers, loan moves or contract renegotiations, to maximise a client’s football career.
Contract Negotiations
Our team has decades of experience when it comes to negotiating transfers contracts, giving us a unique insight into both sides of a negotiation. Having worked as Intermediaries at the very top level of professional football for over 20 years respectively, our FA Registered Intermediaries have represented players from Champions League, Premier League, Championship and Football League clubs, , as well as working with managers and coaches throughout the domestic game. One of our core skills is in the strategy and psychology involved in carrying out a successful negotiation, meaning we are able to deliver maximum value for our clients. Operating with full transparency, we provide reassurance to our clients throughout, but also protect them from the stress associated with the process. Thisenables them to concentrate on optimising their performance on the pitch.
Mental Health and Wellbeing
Whilst football is a business, we believe in the importance of serving the needs of our clients as people as well as players. We also understand the mental challenges and pressures encountered by both academy and professional players when participating in elite sport – especially in a post-COVID world. Led by our Head of Welfare, we have developed a Client Welfare Model, designed to support the emotional and mental-health needs of our clients and their families. This includes one-to-one check-ins, mental health first-aid, injury support, and counselling, as well as liasing with parents, staff and any other relevant stakeholders to meet the welfare and support needs of our clients. We have also established robust policies and procedures when it comes to the welfare and safe-guarding involved in working with minors.
Social Media Management
The most powerful tools used to connect players to their fans, and align with brands, are their social media platforms. We work with our clients to harness the expertise of industry-leading experts to create personalised strategies and bespoke content for their platforms, whether that is on Instagram or TikTok, Twitter or Twitch. This can result in maximum engagement with followers and create opportunities for commercial partnerships, adding to a player’s value during contract negotiations. We also ensure our clients follow best practise in terms of online security and image, in order to fully comply with the governace and rules surrounding a professional player’s use of social media. There are also challenges associated with having a public profile on social media surrounding trolling and racist abuse, which we provide support to clients on, via our Client Welfare Model.
Commercial Partnerships and Brand Development
Working with specialists in the commercial sector, we are able to identify and negotiate commercial and brand partnerships for our clients, delivering extra income sources away from football. Combined with our Digital and Social Media Management strategies, growing a client’s brand and highlighting their personality enables them to seek out collaborations with companies looking to secure and optimise commercial partnerships with professional players. Once secured, we help oversee the activation and delivery of your partnerships to deliver maximum impact and value, as well as future partnerships.
Media and Public Relations
As an elite professional footballer, our clients must be capable of dealing with the media, and our services range from media training, to managing speculation surrounding possible transfers and contract negotiations, and in some cases, dealing with crisis management. Utilising the media to enhance leverage is also a skill, and can be mismanaged, which in turn can lead to a breakdown in relationships between players and their clubs. Our experienced team are able to navigate such sensitive areas and ensure your media profile is always positive.
Personal Development
We are committed to empowering our clients to be the best version of themselves, in order to make the most out of their ability and achieve their career goals. We help our clients by providing one-to-one mentoring by former elite professionals, personalised scouting reports, and video and data driven performance analysis – all of which allows the player to focus on strengths and work on weaknesses. We can also provide clients the opportunity to work with individual skills coaches, strength and conditioning coaches, or nutritionists, taking charge of their own development to further improve performance.
Data Analytics and Performance Analysis
Just as our clients now experience the use of data analytics and performance analysis at their clubs, we are also embracing the data revolution in football in order to best serve their development. We use the industry-leading analytics platform, StatsBomb, and employ a full-time Player Insights department, all of whom have worked at professional football clubs prior to joining us, in order to analyse and improve individual and team performances. Our Registered Intermediaries work closely with the Player Insights department in order to pursue opportunities for our clients, comparing them with relevant players at other clubs to determine transfer and contract value, and incorporating factors such as team playing-style into the process of choosing a new club.
Post-retirement Planning
A player’s career path can be unpredictable, and we are advocates for all of our clients to plan for the possibility of needing, or wanting a career after professional sport ends. Working closely with our partners Life After Professional Sport (LAPS), we assist our clients with training and qualifications in preparation for their chosen post-retirement career. If your career ends abrupty, doesn’t go according to plan, or naturally reaches it’s conclusion, having a plan to fall back on is something that can help establish a new sense of purpose, continue to provide financial security, and deal with the mental strain of no longer playing professional sport.
Concierge Services
For clients who require a trusted concierge service, we can provide access to a trusted team of industry experts in order to create more time for themselves and their family, providing peace of mind and satisfaction that their lifestyle needs will be met. Our team specialise in luxury travel, transport and accommodation services; personal shopping including luxury product sourcing; property management and interior design, and vehicle procurement services.
Financial Planning and Management
We provide access for our clients to experienced and trusted accountants and advisors who we have built trusted long-term relationships with over two decades. Their expertise lie in guidance and advice on managing income, tax planning, banking, general investments, mortgages, career-ending insurance and image/commercial rights solutions. We operate on a strict ‘no commission policy’, ensuring there is no financial gain to our Intermediaries or the company for the referrals and introductions we make.
Legal Support
We work closely with Onside Law, a world class legal service with over two decades of experience, to provide our clients with solutions for professional or private matters, including dispute resolution, reputation and crisis management, transfers, commercial, sponsorship, regulation and governance and disciplinary issues.