Deals being done (perhaps still over a fist bump rather than a handshake), new global connections made and take-home learnings from inspirational guest speakers: football’s return to pre-pandemic normality took another step forward in the Spanish capital.
We are here talking about what we’re looking for, and learning what clubs are looking for. People are open and honest about the players they have available and the money involved. That is the most important thing because it’s not always that way in football.
Old and new faces
Decision makers at more than 200 clubs from over 50 countries and a select number of Trusted Agents descended on Madrid for a record-breaking TransferRoom Summit.
TransferRoom’s mission is to empower clubs, agencies and players to be successful in the transfer market by providing real-time market intelligence and direct access to a global network of decision makers.
That direct access resulted in some 1,600 scheduled meetings taking place in 15 minute slots across two days, as well as hundreds of others in more informal settings.
Squad needs and requirements were shared and business cards were exchanged.
For some first-time attendees, being part of the TransferRoom community has opened up a new way of working.
Lucy Rushton, General Manager and Head of Technical Recruitment and Analysis at DC United, said: “I don’t have the contacts my Technical Director [Stewart Mairs] has, so for me it’s been brilliant to connect with people and make those contacts. We are here talking about what we’re looking for, and learning what clubs are looking for. People are open and honest about the players they have available and the money involved. That is the most important thing because it’s not always that way in football.”
For others like Ivan Mance, Sporting Director of Pafos FC, the Madrid Summit was a welcome return to familiarity.
Mance, who attended TransferRoom’s last event on European soil, in Madrid in late 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic effectively put pay to international travel, said: “The TransferRoom Summit is the first sign that football is coming back to pre-Covid time, finally.”
Value-adding features
TransferRoom is constantly developing its offering to help solve some of the challenges stakeholders face in their transfer operations. Like how best to value a player, for example.
In late 2021, TransferRoom launched Expected Transfer Value (xTV) as a means to give its member clubs and other users the most credible, data-led measure of a player’s value in the market.
Fast forward to Madrid and ‘data corner’ was a hive of activity as TransferRoom analysts conducted bespoke meetings with clubs worldwide to help them better compare their squads with other teams in their league, identify suitable players for outplacement and potential transfer value lost.
Another significant first for TransferRoom in 2021 was the welcoming of big-name sports management firms to the platform as Trusted Agents, giving them access to a global network and the opportunity to do business faster, safer and better.
For the first time on European soil, a select number of agents participated in a live TransferRoom Summit.
Ogun Erdem, Owner of Turkey-based Golden Goal Sports Management, said: "Time is the most important thing in the world. Why waste your three months on the road to visit 50 clubs, instead of seeing all of them within 48 hours."
Patrick McCabe, Managing Director of the Americas at ICM Stellar Sports, the giant agency that represents the likes of Jack Grealish, Eduardo Camavinga and Yeremy Pino, added: “I was really pleased with the decision to attend and I had a chance to broaden our network and further develop some key relationships with clubs. Highly recommended.”
Away from the potential deal-making, Summit attendees once again were treated to on-stage, big-name football executives.
Off the back of the successful multi-club ownership panel in Orlando, it was the turn of Rasmus Ankersen to share the ambitious growth plans of Sport Republic, owner of Southampton FC.
Ankersen, the former Chairman of FC Midtjylland and Co-Director of Football at Brentford FC, explained why the Premier League club - with its first class academy, strong fan base and excellent board - was the first pick for Sport Republic and detailed the processes the group will go when making its next investment decision.
Day two kicked off with Paul Mitchell, Sporting Director of AS Monaco, who gave a fascinating insight into the situation he found the club in when he joined in July 2019.
From 77 players under contract to training facilities in desperate need of renovation to a “mishmash” of playing philosophies, Mitchell shared his experience of an extensive audit he carried out on every department of the club in his first few months.
On the pitch, that has now led to AS Monaco having the youngest squad on average in Europe’s top five leagues, while a new state-of-the-art performance centre was built.
With transfer windows still open in some markets worldwide (see the Transfer Window Tracker for the full run down) and other clubs planning for the summer, it was a case of connections made paying dividends, either immediately or further down the line.
Or, as Tom Van den Abbeele (pictured above, right), Sporting Director of Royal Excelsior Virton, in Belgium, put it: "It is the ideal way to meet the colleagues you will be dealing with sooner or later."
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