How to grow your global network

Relying on your local network and your limited contacts book can only get you so far in football’s transfer market.

That’s whether you’re a Sporting Director responsible for the first-team recruitment strategy or a Loans Manager finding opportunities for the next generation.

In the modern transfer market, reliable, real-time market intelligence and direct access to the right people - the decision-makers at clubs and agencies - can give you the edge.

So you can build trust, open up your global network and new markets, and know exactly what clubs are looking for and who to contact. 

For Federico Balzaretti, a former Italy international and left-back for AS Roma, the solution to these challenges since moving into the transfer business as a club executive has been through TransferRoom.

TransferRoom, world football’s only transfer marketplace, was founded in 2017, midway through Balzaretti’s first spell as Roma’s Loans Manager from 2015 to 2019.

Now consisting of over 800 clubs and 550 Trusted Agencies in more than 130 leagues, TransferRoom is an online marketplace in which decision-makers connect directly, and you can see what clubs are looking for, player availability and other real-time market intelligence including player performance and transfer data.

Balzaretti was one of the first users of the online platform and it’s been central to his work ever since, which has included spells as Sporting Director of LR Vicenza in Serie C and Udinese Calcio in Serie A.

Now he’s back as Roma’s Loans Manager. Speaking at March 2025’s TransferRoom Summit in Berlin & Online, where over 380 clubs and 60 agencies met over three days, he said: “From this Summit, I understand a bit more, where we go in the market for the next transfer window.

“I'm the Loans Manager of AS Roma, so I am looking for some profiles, to understand which clubs could be a good fit and suit some players, for our other players, and then also to understand the way some clubs are organised and structured. 

“It’s always interesting to me. It’s my eighth or ninth TransferRoom Summit, or more. I was on TransferRoom at the beginning, so I have seen TransferRoom growing and we're growing together.

“It's always a great pleasure to be here, really. A lot of clubs, very interesting. It's two days that are very busy. We have to be focused and be prepared before the meeting too, but it's amazing to have so many people speaking about football and bringing good energy. The new generation is coming, also, so that’s something coming that you can see here.”

Balzaretti’s previous job was Sporting Director of Udinese Calcio, from June 2023 to June 2024. He oversaw their successful battle against relegation from Serie A despite the €25.0million sale of their star striker Beto to Everton at the start of the season.

TransferRoom was a core part of his daily work in the transfer market at Udinese, helping him to build a first-team squad including 19 different first-team nationalities, and to maximise opportunities for rotation players and young talents on loan.

Gaining direct access to the decision-makers and real-time market intelligence from clubs and agencies in over 100 leagues and 65 countries had a huge impact.

"You can be connected with many, many clubs and the platform has helped us to find some important deals,” Balzaretti said at the TransferRoom Summit in his home city of Rome, in March 2024.

"On TransferRoom we made loan deals in January 2023 with two players that we have, Domingos Quina to FC Vizela and Sekou Diawara to Beerschot. Both performed very well.

“We have an internal scouting system for players and coaches, but I match this also with TransferRoom data. We can't know every player in the world, so this has helped me to get a vision of the market.

"Every day in the morning I open the platform. I see if someone has pitched players to us.

"I also check if someone is looking for a player profile that can be matched with our player.

"So it's something that I use day by day, and not just during the transfer window. It's helped me to scout, for sure, and to also understand the price."

AS Roma are among more than 800 clubs using TransferRoom. You can find out how to join them here.

Agents, get access to the decision-makers at top clubs in over 130 leagues worldwide and land the best deal opportunities as a TransferRoom Trusted Agent. Find out more here.