Global ambitions in the transfer market

The year of 2025 is huge for Mamelodi Sundowns, who will be competing with the very best from Europe and the rest of the world as they compete in the expanded FIFA Club World Cup, a competition they have already qualified for.

And the South African side will try to win Africa’s biggest competition, the CAF Champions League, after narrowly missing out on the title in recent years.

They go into 2025 with seven consecutive South African Premier League titles to their name, and a squad built with homegrown talents and a selection of international stars.

TransferRoom has been a pivotal part of that recruitment process since they joined in 2022.

Football’s only transfer marketplace, with an online platform that over 800 clubs and 500 Trusted Agencies use to get deals done, has made their biggest-ever signings possible.

Here, Sporting Director Flemming Berg told us how they used TransferRoom to make the three multi-million Euro signings: Marcelo Allende (€2.9M), Matías Esquivel (€2.3M), Tashreeq Matthews (€1.5M).

They were the biggest in their history up until Arthur Sales, a €3.2M move from Lommel SK, became the new number one, in another deal made possible by TransferRoom.

Berg was speaking at a TransferRoom Summit, where football decision-makers meet with 100s of clubs and a selection of top agencies for direct transfer talks and networking, all in one place over two days. 

And in the full interview, he reveals his strategy at the in-person TR Summits, held a few times a year in key locations around the globe, and how they’ve had a lot of deal success from the events. 

“We have, based on TransferRoom, done a few deals over the last two years,” said Berg in the video below. “For example, Marcelo Allende, Matías Esquivel and Tashreeq Matthews.

“We are here to do business and we are quite successful at it. That's why you come to the TransferRoom Summit.

“When we are here and we have these opportunities to have 23 meetings over two days with 23 different clubs or agents, it's an opportunity that we have to take.

“So what I'm doing now is, I will write an email to our data department and say, ‘Look, these are the players that I have been suggested. Can you have a look at it?’

“If there are one or two of these players where we say, ‘OK, this could actually be interesting’, I will try to set up new meetings immediately with those clubs or agents already tomorrow.”

TransferRoom’s forming a key part of Sundowns’ ambitions to be the top team in Africa and to increase their global footprint in the game.

Berg added: “It gives us a platform to make our horizon and our possibilities much bigger.

“It's a lot about information and building relationships and partnerships, for us from South Africa.

“It is very important because South Africa is far away. It's far away from Europe and it's far away from South America, which are generally the markets.

“We are looking at both buying players but also selling players. So to come here, for me it's an opportunity without travelling more than once to meet a lot of people and get some good connections.”

Register here to get transfers done on a global scale at our next TransferRoom Summit in Istanbul, Türkiye, on 11-12 November and Online on 14 November.

Find out how to join Mamelodi Sundowns and over 800 other clubs on TransferRoom.