Cristiano Ronaldo, James Rodriguez, Angel Di Maria, David De Gea, Diego Costa. These are just some of the superstars that Jorge Mendes represents. Mendes is a Portuguese soccer agent who is one of the most influential in the world and lays claim to about 68% of all player transactions at Sporting Lisbon, Benfica, and Porto (Portuguese soccer clubs) and its said to have brokered over 1 billion pounds worth of trades.
Mendes started his career as a soccer player himself, and in his early 20s tried to get into several Portuguese soccer clubs. However after being rejected, he moved away from a career as a player and eventually found himself brokering trades, spurred by a deal he made with a goalkeeper that he met in a bar. Gradually he moved on to making more and more trades, and scouting out young talent such as Cristiano Ronaldo.
Although Mendes is well liked by many who have dealt with him during trades and other transactions, he’s been accused by FIFA for corruption, conflicts of interest in player representation, and excessive influence in club affairs. Even more, Mendes has been said to be consistently in violation of regulation with little to no regard for them. Jorge Mendes is more than just a great soccer agent, he’s symbolic of soccer’s transformation into an extremely profitable industry.
Hi Hyun Moh, thanks for sharing the link to Kia Joorabchian, football is definitely a lucrative industry! Its really interesting to see the side effects of it like you mentioned!
Good snippet, Carlos! Agents have been excessively influential in transfer market these days. Honestly, it’s quite hard to stomach some of the extreme incidents of agent power, even though I recognize the roles of agents as necessary in the world of football.
Another one infamous for such aspects is Kia Joorabchian, who represents some of the top South American players including Carlos Tevez, Javier Mascherano, and Ramires. You might already know, but here’s a wiki summary of the incidents involving around him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kia_Joorabchian
Of course, this ties into the side-effects of having third-party ownerships of football players (Neymar, anyone?); but that’s another story to tell.