Finding exactly what you are looking for

With 18 top-flight titles, 13 national cups and a European Cup semi-final to their name, FC Dinamo Bucharest are one of the biggest clubs in Romania.

But they had to get through a play-off to avoid relegation after finishing 14th out of 16 teams in 2023/24. They decided to transform their transfer strategy as they seek a return to challenging for titles every season.

TransferRoom has been at the heart of their new recruitment strategy led by President Andrei Nicolescu and Head of Recruitment Cosmin Mihalescu.

And in particular, sharing requirements for signings on the platform, through placing Ads that show what they are looking for, and this has had an instant impact with two key signings in the summer of 2024.

“I would say 70% of our usage of TransferRoom is recruitment,” Mihalescu explains in the video below. “When we're looking to actually approach players, of course, the first place we go is TransferRoom to see whether they are on the platform. Because that would be the most straightforward way we know that we can get in touch with their agent directly with no intermediaries.

“TransferRoom gives us a better idea of what's available out there. The most important thing for me is the fact that we can get an idea of players' wage demands.

“We have already defined some profiles for every position on the pitch, so we have a very clear idea about what we need when we log onto TransferRoom to post the ads. We try to make it as specific as possible.

“It has to be within the budget that we have established. We decide whether it's a buy or a loan that we are looking for. We put the age range in there. A minimum height if that's the case. We're looking at nationality sometimes.”

Those two pivotal signings were central midfielder Patrick Olsen from Śląsk Wrocław, whom he helped finish second in the Polish Ekstraklasa last season, after they transformed from relegation battlers to title challengers in 2023/24.

The other was Kennedy Boateng from SC Austria Lustenau in Austria’s second tier. He was recruited to partner fellow Togolose centre-back Josué Homawoo in defence.

Both came directly from Dinamo sharing their requirements through the TransferRoom feature.

“In the cases of Patrick Olsen and Kennedy Boateng, we knew the players from our internal scouting process,” Mihalescu says. “We just weren't sure whether they were within our budget and this is where TransferRoom was really handy. 

“All of a sudden, we were offered two players that we already knew but we were just missing the final bit of information, without which I don't know if we would have made the step to enter negotiations with them and finally sign them.

“We were looking for a central defender who's able to play a high line, and then he also has no problem tracking back whenever a fast striker would go behind him. We already had a central defender [Josué Homawoo], the left central defender in our team. He's also a Togolese player. So it just happened that Kennedy was also from Togo.

Kennedy Boateng (pictured above) has been part of the "best centre-back pairing in the league"

“It worked out great because they are both called up to their national teams and they are, at this point, the best central defender pairing in the league.

“With Patrick, we were looking for someone to carry the ball from Zone 1 to Zone 3 to make this transition in zone 2.”

Boateng has played 16 times and has formed an impressive partnership with Josué, while Olsen has played 100% of available minutes in 13 league matches since arriving in September.

And they’ve had a big impact on their league position, with Dinamo just one point off top spot in the SuperLiga as they contend for the title sooner than anticipated.

“We’re in a part of the table, in the top 3, that we are aiming to be in for a very long time. For us, it is still early in this process, but we feel that we're gonna eventually get to where we want to be: fighting for the title every season.

“And with players like Kennedy and Patrick, they give us exactly what we want, in terms of what we have defined as our game philosophy and the way we want to play.

Patrick Olsen (pictured, centre), has played every minute in the league for Dinamo

“We are in transition to a different scouting process. So we're looking to integrate the tools that we are using and potentially new tools in our work.”

Part of the benefit of clubs being on TransferRoom is direct access to over 550 Trusted Agencies, who are verified by their players as their representatives. This also means that club decision-makers no longer have to rely on intermediaries or have other agents wrongly representing a player, building trust, saving time and money on commission.

“I would say that the biggest benefit of the TransferRoom platform is the fact that you have direct access to the players' agents and you don't have to go through intermediaries who, most of the time, increase the price of the deal,”  Mihalescu adds. “This is the main selling point.

“For me on a daily basis. Up until now, we were only using it building up towards the transfer window. But now we are using it multiple times per week.

“So we are trying to make the most of it, because with new functionalities, I'm sure it's going to become more and more useful. And it’s going to be a no-brainer to use in your everyday scouting process.”

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