Sabah signed Tiemoko Fofana on loan from Finnish club Ilves Tampere in the perfect example of how TransferRoom opens up the world to clubs at all levels.

Sabah Chief Executive Ramin Hasanov said: “In Azerbaijan, we’re very far away from Europe, and generally it can be difficult to get valid market information from the international transfer market. In order to be competitive in our league, we need to attract the best possible players for the best possible price, but it’s not easy to have direct contact to clubs in Europe.”

“Now we use TransferRoom every day as it opens the door to the international transfer market. Despite the large geographical distance, with a few clicks, we can get a complete overview of which players are available for sale and loan in 78 different leagues. This way, we have a much better opportunity to choose the best player for the best price in the market.”

Pitch perfect

TransferRoom allows clubs to share what kind of players they are looking to recruit or move on, and to pitch to each other based on that knowledge. Sabah’s loan signing of Fofana, 21, in the winter of 2021 came about in exactly this way.

Hasanov said: “We posted an ad on TransferRoom in order to receive pitches of relevant strikers within our budget, and we received a really interesting pitch of Tiemoko Fofana from Ilves Tampere in Finland. We didn’t know the player was available for a transfer before, but after evaluating him with the scouting team we decided to take direct contact to his club.

“We didn’t have any contacts in Finland before, but using TransferRoom we quickly got in contact with Ilves Tampere’s decision-makers and finished the deal.”

New markets, new possibilities

Hasanov believes TransferRoom will not only help Sabah to recruit from a much wider range of countries but also allow the club to create a market for its own players.

Hasanov said: “As a CEO, I’m generally mostly involved in negotiations, when my scouts have identified an interesting player. Now, using TransferRoom, when my chief scout passes me his list of desired players, I can get in direct contact with the player’s club director with a few clicks. This saves me lots of time and helps make our transfer process more efficient.”

“Azerbaijan is generally not scouted a lot by European clubs, but we see TransferRoom as a perfect way to promote our players to international football clubs.”

Sabah recently upgraded their TransferRoom subscription so that they can pitch their under-23 players, as well as first-team stars, to a global community of 550 clubs.

Making connections

Hasanov has also attended the Virtual Summit events that TransferRoom has staged throughout the pandemic in order to keep the transfer market moving despite the restrictions.

He said: “I have had one-to-one meetings with club directors in Belgium, Portugal, Russia and England, with whom I still keep in contact with today. It’s a really efficient way to expand my network, and I’m looking forward to making more connections in international football.”