Saving time, money and travel

In a vast continent like North America, the amount of time and travel involved for an agent looking to recruit players can be huge. Time that could instead be spent doing deals and earning commission.

That’s why MEL Sports Management, a forward-thinking agency based in Canada with a strong South American presence, are making the most of TransferRoom’s new PlayerMarket feature. 

PlayerMarket gives agencies direct access to players actively looking for a new agent in their chosen markets. Instead of spending time pursuing players that aren’t currently looking, or wasting time and money on travel, agencies can now be the first to know and first to act when professional players are searching for new representation. MEL Sports were one of the first agencies to take advantage.

Oscar Melendez, Director of MEL Sports, explained at the first-ever South American TransferRoom Summit, hosted in Brazilian city São Paulo, how this is benefitting his agency.

“We use PlayerMarket to get access to more players wanting to play in North America and to grow our business there,” he said in the video below.

“I’m based in Canada but I don’t have as many connections in the United States. Thanks to PlayerMarket, I no longer have to travel to recruit players who are interested in playing there.

“Players can access us directly. It saves time, travel and money and it gets us more opportunities faster.”

After only a few weeks of PlayerMarket access, MEL Sports had already recruited three new players to their portfolio via the platform, including Klisman Cake, who has an Expected Transfer Value of €1million. 

It’s the latest in a series of features that MEL Sports are taking full advantage of as part of their TransferRoom membership. 

As a TransferRoom Trusted Agent, Melendez’s players have verified his agency as being their sole representative on the platform. This means clubs know the right person to speak to, without spending time and money involving intermediaries.

“Clubs know they’re dealing with the right people,” Melendez added. 

“There’s transparency for all parties. We can get down to business directly with the right people without other parties being involved that could create an issue with the transfer or business relationship.”

'Players feel like they can trust us'

Transparency is of utmost importance to MEL Sports. Sharing open and honest feedback with players helps build trust and loyalty, and the agency is using the TransferRoom platform to support this transparent approach. 

By sharing access to a real-time feed of transfer activity and pitch feedback with their players, MEL Sports has earned High Transparency status on TransferRoom. Melendez explains how this benefits both players and agencies.

“The player feels like they trust us”, he said. 

“By using this feature, players get notified when a club we’ve pitched to shows interest in them. We can then talk to them and explain what it means.

“They can see that we’re working for them. That we’re pushing to make our players more visible to clubs in the platform and giving them more opportunities in different markets. It helps us show our players we’re doing the best for them.”

Melendez was negotiating directly with club decision makers at the TransferRoom Summit in Brazil. At TransferRoom Summits, Trusted Agencies and clubs maximise two days of 15-minute meetings to get transfer business done fast and build relationships. 

Summarising the benefit of TransferRoom for the agency, Melendez said: “We love the tool. It’s great for approaching clubs and making professional connections. It’s really valuable for our agency as we can do real business with real people in the industry.”

To start accelerating the success of your agency, find out more about becoming a Trusted Agent on TransferRoom.