Expanding your agency beyond your home market is often an expensive and complex task.

Sure, you could partner with an agency in another country, but then you would have to split commissions and rely on second, perhaps even third-hand information on clubs’ requirements.

You could send employees on road trips to build relationships with clubs directly, but travel is expensive and, if the coronavirus pandemic has taught us anything, unpredictable.

You could even set up offices in multiple markets worldwide. Manpower on the ground, but it’s not a quick solution. It requires a big initial investment, and there is no guarantee for success.

Sarcle Co Ltd has made moves to overcome all those hurdles and change its way of working  through TransferRoom.

The Tokyo-headquartered firm has become one of the first Trusted Agents of TransferRoom, and the first from Japan.

The J. League is regarded as one of the biggest leagues in Asia, but now it’s never been easier for the country’s top players to make the move out of Japan, particularly as Yusuke Akiyama, CEO of Sarcle, now has direct access to clubs in 56 countries worldwide.

Akiyama says: “TransferRoom is perfect as a new tool in order for us to accomplish more and more transfers of Japanese players to Europe and other foreign countries.

“TransferRoom helps reduce the barriers in international transfers.”

Sarcle has a portfolio of around 50 players, the majority of which play in Japan’s J1 and J2 leagues. 

They include highly-rated Kashima Antlers pair Yuta Matsumura, 20, and Ayase Ueda, 22, 19-year-old Shimizu S-Pulse midfielder Yuito Suzuki and Rikuto Hashimoto, just 16, and already a starter for J2 League side Tokyo Verdy.

Further afield, Sarcle represents Japan internationals Takashi Inui, of LaLiga’s Eibar, who has spent the last decade playing in Germany and Spain, Werder Bremen striker Yuya Osako and Liverpool’s Takumi Minamino (pictured), perhaps the biggest name in the portfolio, who left Japan’s Cerezo Osaka in 2015 for RB Salzburg in Austria.

Akiyama adds: “Of course, I will continue to value a number of actual visits in Europe as I have been, and the relationship with the trusted clubs and partners I have built with, but I have decided to join TransferRoom for further business development.”

The key to success is mutual trust and access to TransferRoom for management companies and individual representatives is by invitation only.

To learn more about the benefits of becoming a Trusted Agent, click here: https://www.transferroom.com/solutions-agent