Earlier this month, Manchester City announced the contract extension of their star player Kevin De Bruyne. The most interesting part of that announcement was the fact that the Belgian had reportedly agreed to the new contract all by himself, without the help of an agent.
He followed the example set by his teammate, Raheem Sterling and of Bayern Munich midfielder Joshua Kimmich who also agreed new contracts all by themselves. In the instance of De Bruyne, the player saved £8 million, which would have had to be paid to the agent if one was involved.
This has prompted the discussion of whether football agents will become less important with time. According to agent Jose Manuel Espejo,
“Footballers have to be concentrated on football one hundred percent,” he said.
“The agent gives economic security. He maximises the career of the player because he understands this environment.
“The footballer does not know how this market works and the agent does.”
While there is truth to what Espejo is saying, the main reason behind the decrease in reliance upon an agent, as mentioned by Lorena Cos, is:
“That they decide not to have an agent is at times because of the confidence and security that they have in themselves and in their environment, but on other occasions it is out of fear that their value will not be represented well,” she said.
At the end of the day, despite there always being an element of doubt surrounding the reliability of an agent, a footballer’s true role is on the pitch. Moreover, the contacts and the loopholes that an agent might be aware of could be much more than that of a player, due to their years of experience. Exceptions are not examples, and that is all these cases are.
Hence, while there are cases of footballers agreeing contracts on their own, agents will never not be valuable in the sport.
