It’s a known fact that Jorge Mendes and Mino Raiola are two of the big fish in the circle of football agents when it comes to transacting a mouthwatering deal in the transfer market on behalf of a player and a club.
As such, football agents are extremely very important in the business aspect of football, because they’re always saddled with the task of transacting a deal for their client.
Just as we know that football is one of the most attractive, competitive, and arguably the most popular sport in the world, has continued to revolve in terms of the financial aspect and popularity. With this assertion, the football agents fraternity if there’s any word like that is also evolving just like the game itself, with the players now turning their parents into football agents.
Football agents play a crucial part in footballers’ life, negotiating contracts, and managing the client’s business off and on the field. As a footballer, it’s very important to have an experienced football agent who truly understands the terrain of the transfer market better in other to avoid bad business.
Football stars who have their parent as football agents
Since FIFA washed their hands off regulating and licensing middlemen in 2015, they’ve been some level of changes in representing a player as his agent, which is also called ‘Players Intermediary‘. The term simply means that anyone could represent a player in contract negotiations without been necessarily licensed as a football agent.
So with this development right since 2015, we’ve seen some players resorted to using their family as their agent, and below are some of the players who use their parents as their representative.
1. Jorge Messi – (Lionel Messi’s Agent)
It’s no news that Jorge is Messi’s father and representative when it comes to contract negotiations. His Argentine father has been the one responsible for negotiating all of his contracts right from the first day he stepped his feet at Barcelona, even when ‘La Pulga‘ had issues concerning tax evasion with the Spanish authority Jorge Messi did his job as an agent and likewise a father managing his son’s off-field issues.
According to report, Jorge Messi’s commissions are reportedly worth around £75m on each of Messi’s deals. Recently with the Messi’s saga on leaving Barcelona, Jorge also played his role as the agent of his son, meeting with the President of the club Bartomeu in other for both parties to reach an agreement on Messi’s future which eventually happened in the end.
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2. Hans Robben – (Arjen Robben’s Agent)
Hans is a licensed football agent who represents his son in negotiating deals, the Dutchman reportedly refers to as a legend in the footballing business. Hans is often regarded as a business-minded man who understands the terrain of negotiating great deals for his son.
Mr. Hans was responsible for Robben’s move to Bayern Munich from Real Madrid in a deal that worth €25m, which he also earned €4.5m as commissions. Hans is also a retired footballer who played at the highest level in the Eredivisie with FC Groningen and Emmen, before retiring to take up the work of football agent.
3. Neymar Santos Sr – (Neymar Jr’s Agent)
Talking about football agents, Neymar Sr has been a major influence in his son’s trajectory. The Brazilian agent plus father has been representing his son in negotiating and signing deals with the clubs he plays for since Neymar Jr dumped his former agent Wagner Ribero.
Neymar Sr who is also a former footballer, played for Mogi Das Cruzes in the outskirts of Sao Paulo, brokered the deal that took his son (Neymar Jr) to Barcelona in 2013 from Santos.
The father and son partnership is regarded as one of the most popular duos in football, Neymar Sr was also very instrumental in Neymar’s world-record move down to Paris Saint Germain in 2017.
Neymar Sr N&N administrator owns by the Brazilian agent might be set to broker another deal in the future, as a lot of talks have been around his son’s future away from Paris.
4. Juan Manuel Mata Rodriguez – (Juan Mata’s Agent)
Manuel Mata Rodriguez was also a footballer who donned the jersey of Burgos CF, Salamanca among other clubs in the 1980’s up until the early 1990s as a striker before he retired. After his retirement, the Spaniard took to players intermediary, and since then he has represented various players such as his son (Juan Mata), Salomon Rondon among others.
Mata’s father was responsible for his son’s dream move from Valencia to Chelsea, also from Chelsea to Manchester United in 2014 for £37.1m. Mr. Rodriguez is also the founding partner of the JM10Sport player’s agency and the majority shareholder of the agency.
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5. Thierry Hazard – (Eden Hazard’s Agent)
Before now Hazard doesn’t have a representative, as such he does his negotiations himself with the aids of his personal lawyer, which come to fore in his move to Chelsea for £22.5m from Lille OSC in 2012. Hazard’s father took over his dealings following his license been granted to him in early 2019, and since then he took over the representative job of his son and was very instrumental in Hazard’s move to Real Madrid from Chelsea.
Just like the aforementioned names, Mr. Thierry was also a semi-professional footballer during his days, playing for La Louviere, the town where his two sons Thorgan playing for Borussia Dortmund and Eden were born, and as a matter of fact, the Hazard’s family were known as a sporting family.
6. Bismark Hudson Odoi – (Callum Hudson Odoi’s Agent)
It’s no news that Bismark Odoi is of Ghanaian origin and from a footballing family. Bismark Odoi played for the Black Stars of Ghana and also played for one of the prominent football clubs in Ghana (Hearts of Oak) before he traveled out to Europe to pursue a footballing career that comes with a different lifestyle, environment, and more awesome facilities.
Bismark Odoi has been a very close friend to his son, and also dubbed as his agent in terms of sealing a deal for his son.
The father was the one responsible for the lucrative deal Callum signed for Chelsea in 2019, which was worth around £120,000 per week when he was hugely linked with Bayern Munich.
However, as it stands, the former Heart of Oak is still in charge of proceedings except if his son decides to changes agent.
