At table 52, an announcer warns that the countdown timer has dipped under the two-minute mark,
causing conversation to intensify.
After exchanging pleasantries and enquiring as to how each other’s seasons are going,
German Bundesliga Club X asks English Premier League Club Y what they need on the pitch
and whether they might be interested in any of their players.
Welcome to the world of Transfer Market Tinder.
TransferRoom is football’s online marketplace, where 650 clubs from across the globe can
buy, sell and advertise players directly and transparently.
The people behind TransferRoom say they facilitated their 3,000th deal in the January 2023 window,
having launched six years ago. Twice a year, they also host in-person summits which allow
members to meet face-to-face and the latest edition, held at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge,
brought over 235 clubs and 45 agents together in the same room on 135 tables for 48 hours.
Before the event, attendees were able to access TransferRoom’s portal, scour the list of
those attending and request meetings. The recipients then either accepted or rejected
as they booked up their 33, 15-minute slots, making it very much like football speed-dating.
There is even a bell that rings to signal when they are into their final minute of a
meeting.
At table 80, a top-six club’s loan manager arrives with several pages of his academy
players’ details printed out on a document. Faces, ages and details are laid out but the
Championship team opposite have a list of ones they have already identified as being
targets for next season, selling their club’s style of play and previous success as a reason
why they would be a good fit to take them.
Swansea City’s academy director Andy Goldie is doing the same job. He’s created his
own literature, showing who’s available – either permanently or on-loan – and
also containing coaching references and data for the relevant players.
Amiens, from France’s second tier, have an impressive track record of selling players
for big money, including Tanguy Ndombele. They have sold six players via TransferRoom
in the past three years.
John Williams, their English sporting director for the past eight years, had a full schedule
at this year’s event, with English and German sides keen to pick his brains and gauge the
values of some of his top talents.
And that’s the value of TransferRoom. What brought so many clubs to Stamford Bridge this
year is the opportunity, in many cases, to lay the groundwork on potential deals.
Clubs pay a yearly subscription of between £10,000 and £60,000, depending on whether
they take the regular package or the VIP one. This allows them to access an online platform
where they can make their own players available for transfer, create adverts with specific
criteria and pitch to clubs.
Deals often get done, too. In January, among others, the platform brokered three eight-figure
deals, totalling over £30m.
Not that the event is exclusively about buying and selling. Across the room, relationships
are created and strengthened.
Over at table 41, New York Red Bulls chief scout Sebastian Hausl meets Cercle Bruges
sporting director Carlos Avina. Among other topics, they discuss how their respective
high-pressing styles and how they believe they recruit players who are physically made
to play in the Premier League one day.
Avina tells Hausl that their physical output metrics underpin everything they do and that
they have achieved their ambition of Cercle becoming number one in Europe for high-intensity
sprints, while Hausl asks for feedback on the perception of the league and the US market.
At table one, a meeting between a Scottish club and an agent who works a lot in eastern
Europe involves a player they discussed six months ago but whose price has since skyrocketed.
It has focused the club’s intent on capturing these talents earlier in their development
and they have come along today with the names of two players they like from a league the
agent knows well.
The Scots are able to get a sense of the politics at the other club involved and the likely
fee needed. The agent offers a centre-back he thinks suits Scottish football.
At table six, a meeting between a Dutch club and a small European agency takes a surprise
turn which captures the spirit of the event.
The head of recruitment is clear he is revamping the squad and is looking for five specific
profiles to change the style of play, including a ‘bull’ in midfield. The agent has already
handed over a brochure containing a double-page write-up for every player. It would not look
out of place in a high-end estate agency, but his reply to whether any of his players
fit the bill is not in keeping with expectations.
“In four of the positions, I don’t have a player for you; and for the attacking midfield
role, he isn’t ready for that step yet.
The recruitment head shows his gratitude for such honesty.
Reputation’s matter. As does authenticity – as TransferRoom’s head of commercial
Frederik Broholt explains to The Athletic:
“The people here will typically receive several calls every day from someone saying
they represent a player when they don’t. On TransferRoom, if an agent is on the portal
then we know for sure that they are who they say they are.”
There are virtual meetings held too but the company is adding a third summit per year,
to be held in South America, to help members who find it difficult to travel to Europe.
With 650 clubs signed up out of the 4,000 professional ones around the world and 250
agencies from a global pool of between 10,000 and 12,000, Broholt believes there is scope
for it to grow further. The average price of deals agreed via TransferRoom has shot
up from €1million four windows ago, to €3m this January.
“The experience at the tables is more intimate and you can’t find that anywhere else. Some
of the clubs have travelled 10,000km to be here, but they’ve had 25 in-person meetings.
They would have had to travel around the world for three weeks to achieve that.”