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Football Agent With Keys To Club Owners Scott Michaels is also a well known FA licensed football intermediary in England and he has worked with a number of clubs at boardroom level across the world

By Shishir Jajoo

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Scott Michaels
Scott Michaels

Owner of global footballer brands Stylo Matchmakers and Hairbond United Kingdom, Scott Michaels is also a known football agent and advisor to football club owners on behalf of his advisor company Football People.

Before now Scott's intermediary agency has solely looked after worldwide club owners, rather than the kind of a super agent that we associate with representing players.

Scott explained his unique position as a football agent.

"Whilst football is one the most competitive sports, margins are tighter than ever and club owners are pressured to find new opportunities first and fast. The services of which I normally offer mean I deliver new ideas and opportunities for club and brand growth, whilst at the same time representing the energy of which it takes to bring multiple parties together to get deals done. Whether that is acquiring new clubs and assets or simply sourcing information on upcoming opportunities in player transfers."

Not only is Scott's catalogue of opportunities expanding for his clients but he has seen a growing interest in clubs wanting to identify the undervalued players, those who have the ability to climb the ladder of success in football with a view to one day replace the players today at the top.

For this reason he decided to branch out his services to give a few established players an opportunity to work with him, via the new Pro Footballers intermediary platform, he added.

It's common for professional footballers to change representation if they feel it will give them a better chance of success. Scott has now decided to offer a small number of players an opportunity to become part of his club portfolio.

"My network of club owners spread across all professional levels right through to the Premier League. So players who are playing professional, who believe they have what it takes to impress one of my partners, is a match for Pro Footballers."

Today the majority of professional footballers will likely already have some form of representation. Scott explains how Pro Footballers will work around that.

"No I won't be approaching players who already have agents, this lifeline will only be open to players who make the decision to contact me for representation. There's nothing I could ever do to make a player change their destiny, it's the players right to choose their own path in life. For players who aren't happy with things as they stand, Pro Footballers could be the door they've been waiting for. Perhaps now is a good time for players to reflect on if they are happy with where they are."

The objective of a football agent is to support players throughout their career and negotiate the best available deals on their behalf. Whilst the career in football is a lot shorter than those in other industries, the journey of becoming a successful professional can be an extremely challenging road to take.

"To me a career in football is like climbing Mount Everest. The most intelligent players in the world will realize at what stage they're only half-way up the climb, no matter how long it's taken them to get there. But because of the vast amount of ongoing pressures players face as a professional, so many come to admit that they either lost the motivation to seek the path again that leads to the top, or their negative attitude tells them that half-way is actually good enough for them to settle there. If a player is too tired at the 50 per cent stage of the journey, then they will never make it to the top."

Pro Footballers agency aims to help players who are completely dissatisfied with being only half-way up the mountain.

As their representation, it's Scott's role to plug these motivated players into his network extending his portfolio of opportunities to his buyers. His clients are business people who generally only conduct themselves at the top of this mountain so as a guide with a map to the top, it makes total sense to now promote his own exclusive pool of players, he added.

Before 2015, there had been fewer than 500 registered agents in the UK and that figure in the last six years has risen to at least 6,000. Scott tells us some of the benefits of running a smaller operation.

"Some of the big agencies have large numbers of clients on their books. In order to look after players by the hundred, their whole business relies on communication, time and resources. From one players perspective, who's sat in a large group, it can take time for action and it to be their turn. This is why at Pro Footballers, I will only be servicing a small selection of talent and all players with ProFootballers will deal directly with me."

As an owner of footballer style and fashion brands, he also specialises in brand marketing and content. Not just in the interest of his products, but just like he continues to advise clients that their football clubs are brands, it's important to remind football players that they are too, he added.

Home to some of the most famous clubs, players, managers and stadiums in world football, the Premier League is the most-watched league on the planet with one billion homes watching the action in 188 countries. It's not a surprise that professional players aspire to play in this league during their career. Scott explains what club owners look for in players.

"Whilst it's possible for me to move any low league player up through the ranks to the Premier League, if the player doesn't believe that they have the ability to play at a higher level than the level they're at, or their performance stats aren't competitive enough, or they don't have the right attitude, club owners are going to be forced to look at players that do match what they are looking for instead."

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