Pep Guardiola was the first-team manager at Bayern Munich when Erik ten Hag took charge of the youngsters in 2013, but the similarities between the managers of Manchester City and Manchester United do not end there.
Guardiola and Ten Hag are both represented by the same agency: Sports Entertainment Group (SEG).
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SEG has also been involved in many of United’s recent deals, acting for Rasmus Hojlund in his €75million — plus €10m in performance-related add-ons — switch from Italian club Atalanta to United; a deal which also involved CAA Base. SEG also acted on Sofyan Amrabat’s switch from Fiorentina and oversaw Zidane Iqbal’s transfer to Utrecht, while Base worked on Andre Onana’s move from Inter Milan.
Ten Hag was recently asked about the agency’s role at United. “It can’t be (a distraction),” he said, “because we make very good agreements about it from the start — how we cooperate in that manner. For player decisions, transfers, it’s always 50-50; we both have a veto: the club, represented by John Murtough (United’s director of football), and me. So there can never be a distraction.”
It is common for a football club to have favoured agencies they turn to when needing to sign or sell a player. CAA Base, one of the largest agencies in the world, and ICM Stellar, perhaps the biggest agency in football, are frequently used by particular clubs.
A leading recruitment figure at a former Premier League side, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, said: “It is impossible to ignore the biggest agencies because of the volume of players they represent, but another reason clubs will rely on a small pool of agents is down to trust.”
So, who does your club do most of its business with?
The Athletic has analysed the Football Association’s Intermediary Transactions list for 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 to answer that question…
Arsenal
Sports Invest UK brokered deals for Cedric, David Luiz (below) and Willian, while ICM Stellar was used to sign Kieran Tierney and Alex Runnarson.
On the whole, there is not a pattern to the agencies Arsenal rely on, with it ultimately depending on which agency represents the player they signed.
Beyond Sports Invest UK and ICM Stellar, the north London side dealt with an array of agents and agencies.
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Aston Villa
Villa had a busy three years of completing deals and used more than 20 different agents or agencies.
They used Sports Invest UK to broker the Coutinho loan deal from Barcelona in January 2022, while Key Sports Management was used twice during the 2019-20 season, acting in the moves for Tyrone Mings and Danny Drinkwater.
Remarkably, Emiliano Buendia’s £38million transfer from Norwich saw four agents representing Villa.
Unique Sports Management (now called Unique Sports Group after a merger with German agency International Sports Management), Dejan Mitrovic, Santiago Liotta and Carlos Gustavo Goni were all listed.
Liotta represented Arsenal when Villa signed goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez in a deal worth around £20million in September 2020.
Bournemouth
Bournemouth have relied heavily on the biggest agencies in football.
ICM Stellar brokered Lloyd Kelly’s switch from Bristol City in May 2019, and Sports Invest UK was involved in Ricardo Riquelme’s transfer a year later.
Wasserman are down on the deals that saw Freddie Woodman join on loan from Newcastle and Siriki Dembele sign permanently from Peterbrough, both in 2022.
CAA Base was the agency involved in Harry Wilson’s loan switch from Liverpool in August 2019, with Nicola Wilson also being named on the paperwork. David Threlfall, another agent, represented Liverpool in the deal.
Brentford
SEG represented both club and player in the deals that saw Christian Norgaard, Halil Dervisoglu and Kristoffer Ajer join the Premier League team.
Elite Project Group, an agency led by Emeka Obasi which counts Bukayo Saka, Jadon Sancho, Romeo Lavia and Eddie Nketiah among its pool of clients, brokered Tariqe Fosu’s transfer, while also acting for the club in the Shandon Baptiste deal.
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Interestingly, Yatin Patel, who was brought in by administrators to advise Wigan on offloading players in July 2020 as they sought to raise funds to cover the shortfall owed to creditors, represented Brentford when they sold Ollie Watkins to Aston Villa for £28million and Said Benrahma to West Ham for £25million.
Brighton
Brighton are known for their smart recruitment and ability to turn a relatively cheap signing into a player who is sold on for a significant profit.
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But the agents and agencies they use differ, with only ICM Stellar being used more than once, working on the club’s deals to sign Aaron Mooy from Huddersfield and Adam Lallana from Liverpool.
Burnley
During the three seasons analysed by The Athletic, Burnley used Unique Sports Group (USG) in each of them. It worked on Erik Pieters’ move, Dale Stephens’ transfer and, along with Kevin Ousmane Boubakar, was involved in Maxwel Cornet’s switch to Turf Moor.
Key Sports Management was used twice in 2019-20, being listed in the deals for Danny Drinkwater (loan, from Chelsea) and Bailey Peacock-Farrell from Leeds.
It is often the case with all clubs that when a player joins on loan, the agent is listed as working for the club as opposed to their client. This is what happened in the case of Drinkwater.
One of the reasons for this is because the intermediary is helping the club acquire a player rather than the player receiving a new contract as part of the deal.
Chelsea
The 2019-20 publication of the FA’s Intermediary Transactions list is the year Chelsea were under a transfer embargo, meaning Mateo Kovacic was the only player to arrive as the deal was already agreed in advance.
P&P Sport Management, the agency owned by Federico Pastorello, did deals for Malang Sarr and Romelu Lukaku to join the Stamford Bridge side.
Pini Zahavi, the 80-year-old who is viewed as one of the first ‘super agents’, helped broker Thiago Silva’s switch from Paris Saint-Germain with Paulo Tonietto.
Crystal Palace
Iain Moody, Crystal Palace’s former sporting director, is listed as working for them on six deals — Victor Camarasa, Eberechi Eze, Michy Batshuayi, Joachim Andersen, Michael Olise and Jean Phillipe-Mateta — across the three years.
CAA Base represented Eze in his £19million transfer from Queens Park Rangers in August 2020, with Valentine Eve being listed alongside the agency.
ICM Stellar brokered Andersen and Odsonne Edouard’s moves, with USG working on Jordan Ayew, Camarasa and Marc Guehi.
Everton
Everton’s recruitment has been placed under scrutiny in light of the club’s alleged breach of financial fair play rules.
Jorge Mendes, Cristiano Ronaldo’s former agent and the owner of Gestifute, acted for James Rodriguez and Everton for his move to Goodison Park, with Sports Invest UK also representing the club in the transaction.
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Dele Alli’s switch from Tottenham was done by CAA Base, although Alan Hickford, Dele’s adopted father, is also on the paperwork.
Fulham
Fulham relied heavily on the biggest agencies in football to complete the majority of their deals. USG, ICM Stellar, CAA Base and Wasserman all feature heavily.
ICM Stellar did the loan deals for Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Joachim Andersen, while Wasserman brokered Harry Arter’s loan move from Bournemouth, Antonee Robinson’s permanent switch, and, more recently, Neco Williams’ loan transfer from Liverpool.
CAA Base worked on Josh Onomah’s deal from Spurs, Harry Wilson’s loan from Liverpool and Nathaniel Chalobah’s permanent move from Watford. Edward Chalobah was named alongside CAA Base as representing the player.
Liverpool
InterLex Sport is on the paperwork for the deals that saw goalkeeper Adrian and midfielder Thiago join Liverpool. In both cases, it was joined by another agent who also acted for the players and club.
CAA Base and Stephen Davies brokered Ben Davies’ surprise move from Preston North End in February 2021, while ICM Stellar and Diawoye Konate are on the deal sheet for Ibrahima Konate’s £36million switch from RB Leipzig in 2021.
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Luton Town
These three years coincided with Luton Town’s spell in the Championship before they sealed promotion to the Premier League at the end of last season.
Wasserman was used five times (Jacob Butterfield, James Bree, Tom Lockyer, Amari’i Bell and Allan Campbell), which is more than any other agency.
Manchester City
ICM Stellar acted for Jack Grealish and Manchester City in his £100million transfer from Aston Villa in August 2021, which made him the most expensive British player of all time. That moniker now belongs to Declan Rice who joined Arsenal from West Ham in the summer for £105million.
Key Sports Management acted for both parties in the deals that took Scott Carson (Derby County) and Nathan Ake (Bournemouth) to the Etihad Stadium.
The agent Fernando Hidalgo represented Julian Alvarez, with Hernan Reguera, the owner of Eleven Talent Group, acting for City in the transaction.
Manchester United
Triple S brokered Harry Maguire’s £85million deal from Leicester in 2019, with USG working on Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s transfer from Crystal Palace in the same summer.
Gestifute helped bring Ronaldo back to the club, while CAA Base paved the way for Raphael Varane to join United. Anthony Varane, the defender’s older brother, is on the paperwork alongside the agency.
Zahavi and Helen Telles are down as acting for both Alex Telles and United in his transfer from Porto.
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Newcastle United
Newcastle’s fortunes in the transfer market changed when the club was bought by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in October 2021.
They twice turned to CAA Base in January 2022, using them in the deals to sign Chris Wood (Burnley) and Kieran Trippier (Atletico Madrid). Charlotte Trippier, the player’s wife, was listed alongside CAA Base in acting for Trippier in his move from the Spanish side.
Sports Invest UK acted for Newcastle when they signed Bruno Guimaraes. Joe Willock’s initial loan switch from Arsenal in February 2021 and then his permanent £25million transfer to the club saw his father Charles act for the club and player on both occasions.
Nottingham Forest
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Despite the influx of players, the data shows that Nottingham Forest are not relying on one or two agencies to work on deals.
They have used SEG, Wasserman, USG, ICM Stellar, Zahavi, and CAA Base, along with multiple other agencies — but not Kia Joorabchian’s Sports Invest UK.
Sheffield United
One agent that sticks out in Sheffield United’s transactions is Pere Guardiola, the brother and agent of Manchester City manager Pep. Pere has previously worked with Andres Iniesta, Alcantara and Luis Suarez.
Pere joined SEG and became a shareholder in the company in December 2021. He acted for the player and club when Ismaila Coulibaly joined Sheffield United from Norwegian side Sarpsborg in September 2020.
Elsewhere, they have relied on ICM Stellar (Oil McBurnie, Phil Jagielka, Wes Foderingham and Morgan Gibbs-White), USG and CAA Base.
Tottenham Hotspur
As you would expect from one of the Premier League’s bigger sides, they relied on a mixture of football’s biggest agencies, including ICM Stellar, USG, Gestifute and CAA Base when bringing players to the club.
ICM Stellar represented Gareth Bale when he returned on loan from Real Madrid, with Sports Invest UK also on the paperwork for representing Tottenham in the deal.
Sports Invest UK is also down on Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s move from Southampton, acting for the player, alongside Zahavi who is noted as working for Tottenham in the transfer.
West Ham United
USG was the most common agency used by West Ham between 2019-20 and 2021-22, working on five transfers. On two occasions (Jarrod Bowen and Benrahma), it represented the club rather than the player.
The prominent agency also acted for the selling clubs when West Ham signed Darren Randolph from Middlesbrough and Craig Dawson from Watford.
Wolves
It will not come as a surprise that Gestifute and Talents Throne, which is run by the former Gestifute executive Valdir Cardoso, dominate the transactions list at Wolves.
Fosun, Wolves’ owners, have a 15 per cent stake in Gestifute and relied on Talents Throne in more than 10 deals across a three-year period.
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The players it brought to Wolves included Raul Jimenez, Pedro Neto, Nelson Semedo, Fabio Silva and Jose Sa. Talents Throne also acted for Wolves when they sold Diogo Jota to Liverpool for £45million in September 2020.
USG has also been relatively busy at Wolves, paving the way for Matija Sarkic, Louie Moulden and Hwang Hee-chan (loan, RB Leipzig) to join.
(Top image: Getty Images; design: Sam Richardson)