A day of firsts

The event saw almost 1,100 meetings booked by over 250 participants across 41 different countries.

Some 29 clubs attended their first event, including the likes of Sporting CP, Aberdeen, Austin FC and FC Lorient.

Indeed the French club were suitably impressed with their first experience of a TransferRoom Deal Day.

Arnaud Tanguy, General Manager of FC Lorient, said: “These virtual meetings have been useful to network and meet both clubs and agencies. We had constructive discussions and I am looking forward to attending the next one.”

In another first, agencies (27 to be exact) participated in meetings, following TransferRoom’s recent decision to accept Trusted Agents onto the platform.

With the Summer transfer window in full flow in Europe, a day focused on deals was just what was required for French agency BlackSkill.

Gregory Lefort Murcia, Owner and Vice-President of the agency, said: “This was a good time saving event during a period where 24 hours in a day are not enough.”

With clubs and agents interacting for the first time at a TransferRoom event, who better to set the scene than Alex Kroes, the Co-Founder of the SEG International agency and now Owner of the Eredivisie’s Go Ahead Eagles.

Kroes’ shared his insights on life as an agent, the art of negotiating and why it pays to have experience on both sides of the deal. His Q&A can be viewed in full here.

And his former colleagues were suitably impressed with the afternoon’s meetings, with SEG calling the event “really beneficial to our work during the transfer window.”

Club connections strengthened

For clubs, the ability to do business, network and grow contacts’ books virtually remains paramount as the coronavirus pandemic continues to impact how the market operates.

Panagiotis Kone, Technical Director at AEK Athens, called the Virtual Deal Day an “extraordinary and valuable tool for expanding and deepening your connections,” while his counterpart at Den Bosch, Jan Gosgens added: “It was a very useful event to meet new people, discuss the availability of players and the development of players. Maybe we’ll do a transfer [from the event] and then it is perfect.”

Although the transfer window closed in Major League Soccer earlier this month, there was plenty of forward planning being done by New England Revolution, whose Director of Scouting Remy Roy referenced a “great event to help facilitate transfers”.