Is Jorge Mendes the Most Powerful Man in Football - Essay Example

due: Jorge Mendes: the most powerful man in football? Jorge Mendes is revealed by The Guardian sport as a Portuguese agent and as a third- party ownership of players who is involved in many and huge transfers of European football in series. He is involved in transfers with and without indemnity; enhancing the economy of the specific clubs. Some of Mendes’ major deals include; transferring Radamel Falcao from Monaco to Manchester United which costed him £6.7m , Diego Costa from Atl’etico to Chelsea which costed him £32m, James and Rodriguez from Monaco to Real Madrid which costed him £71m (Conn, para 6). He is, therefore, involved in trading of players betting the rise in transfer value. Mendes target for his trading of players is seeking to attract Euro. 85m (pounds. 67m) from investors beyond boundaries companies to buy stakes in Spain and Portugal (Conn, para1). From an economical perspective, Mendes is a critical entrepreneur. This is because he seeks and signs excellent players; producing excellent results as per a given football team. This, therefore, means that he is responsible for the production of a demand curve. The way Mendes does this is by convincing the players to sign up with him is incredible. This triggers the question, ‘Is Jorge Mendes the most powerful man in football?’ This paper seeks to review on leadership and economics in the football world in relation to effective football management. Mendes and his company name became famous over deals done involving Portugal’s top three clubs of which he managed to earn some multi-millions of pounds to England and Spain. The guardian sport reports that Mendes work as excellent achieved this summer following biggest moves of talent and money covering the whole European football transfer market (Conn, para3). From this report, it is evident that Mendes not only critically studies the activities of marker intermediaries but also accounts for the plurality of market mediation devices. By doing so, he manages to convince players to sign up with his company. While Mendes earning from the deals is not mentioned, there is a fact is he earned a lot of billions pound this summer. The main aim of Mendes is trade these players were to attract £Euro 85 (pound67) targeting investors to buy stakes in Spain and Portugal. Transferring the players also benefits the team which sold him and the team player joins by making it famous (Conn, para2). Having been a nightclub owner and a friend of footballers to player’s broker, he mentioned his excellent remarks dominated from deals done by Portugal’s top three clubs, he transferred players to England and Spain on multimillions pounds basis. His work has been highly fruitful this summer. This is evident from the prospectus that boasts about Mendes powerful influences on transfer of the players whom scores goals for the clubs they are transferred to (Conn, para4). He seeks the best players who the public interact with. This is because the players are known to represent the values of a given club. Although there exists a plurality of marker prescribers, bringing about competition among the market professionals, Mendes seeks the best economic actors’ choices and gets the best players; affecting consumer cognition. Moreover, Kenyon is involved in advising on third party ownership of economic rights in players where Mendes and peter Kenyon advises five Jerseys- based funds on more than pound 100m to be invested in buying “economic rights” in players (Conn, para11). Sporting has had something to say about Mendes and Kenyon, where both are involved in advising and negotiating contract funds; where players renew their contract. The clubs argues distortion and conflict of interest following De Carvalho’s regime, while the sporting spokesman says that, sporting does not agree with renewal of the players’ contract on grants from sporting of economic rights basis. This issue triggered the Quality Ireland companies, to report Mendes as being irresponsible for his management role though Mendes did not answer any question concerning renewal of contracts (Conn, para33). After the great deals that Mendes sealed like Hugo Viana’s from Sporting to Newcastle United, he paid £ 8.5m where he achieved point of contact with English Football through partnership with Manchester who later accused him of breaking their agreement when he booked Ronaldo’s from Sporting to United. This sparked a case, and to settle it, he negotiated a deal with Kenyon to move Mourinho as the new manager, this move settled the case (Conn, para 35). This act not only shows Mendes as wise critical thinker, but also as a problem-solver, a characteristic which is vital in individuals who hold leadership roles. Moreover, the mentioned case posed as a threat to undermine transfer market, but via Mendes’ act, he is described as a best businessman. Thus, he is an unquestionable world top football agent, who is involved in many transfers and yet he has another window of transfer. These transfers represent the main assets of clubs by being a source of revenues and debts. With Jorge’s Mendes being behind almost all the summers biggest deals, The guardian has reported the conflict of interest revealed by the report on third- party ownership written by, Centre de sport et d’Economi du sport (CDES) and Centre International d’Etude sport (CIES) research organizations. Where it is stated “an agent’s duty is to work on the best interest of the players, in fact, he is liable and also has a financial interest in having him traded. While the report concludes that, there should be systems in which the players must be sold before their contract are served in order to ensure that their clubs funds that have advanced the club money can cash in. The researchers also took the point of most powerful agents getting involved in third party ownership as gain of influence and access to more players (Conn, para15) and Mendes was mentioned as one of the agents. Evidently, when choosing a player to transfer, Mendes applies both a cost-based approach and talent-based approach. This implies that he does not only see the talent of the player in the football field/ pitch but also the economic value the player posses. Thus, the best players have a stronger negotiating position, explaining why their grand transfer fees have an astonishing amount. The Quality Sports investment prospectus deals with Mendes and question of conflicts of interest as, and fund plays a great role in actual and potential conflicts of interest. Inherent conflicts are also included where Mendes Company provides services such as funding, and company investment. The prospectus also declared that Mendes will act as the agent of players where stakes are bought by the fund. This makes Mendes super- agent which undermines Fifa’s agents’ regulations; specifically regulation 19.8; which states that the player agents shall avoid all conflicts of interest in the course of their activity’’; and Regulation 29.1 which states that clubs should not pay any part of transfer fee to the player agent, and prohibits the agent any transfer refund or future transfer value of the player (Conn, para18). The Chairperson of the Association of Football Agents in England uttered that, agents are allowed to transfer players on the basis that they are broke, and they are to make sure that there is no conflict from both ends. World Football’s governing body does not agree in Mendes investigation activities, and this is because they have never brought any proceeding against any club or person in relation to third party ownership funds. Mendes and his company Gestfute did not comment on the interview. Mendes did not respond to the specific questions about third- party ownership funds and his conflict of interest with his duty as an agent. Moreover, the spokeswoman for FIFA, left matters to the hands of the disciplinary committee to analyze and decide about the case (Conn, para20). Although Mendes’ name was tarnished by this scenario, he acted professionally and maintained his integrity as an ideal manager; thus retaining his status in the football world. To sum this discussion up, it is evident that football has really changed, becoming an industry of buying and selling of talent, where super-rich Premier League clubs and Spain are involved. The extent to which Mendes offers ‘human capital’ to football clubs is impressive. He applies a deep link between sporting and economic reasoning when selecting a player. Mendes has been seen to be an influential transfer intermediary and advisor. He remains to be a super-rich agent and an oiler of the football world. This is without doubt that Mendes is a powerful a powerful man in football. Summary Jordges Mendes is a powerful man in football as the title describes him. He was born at Libson, and he was a night club owner. Despite having his entertainment business, he wished to be a footballer but he did not make it reasons not known. The day he met goalkeeper Nuno at a bar, they negotiated about Nanos’ transfer to Deport Ivo La Cor’una and this was his turning point from a night club owner to a super- agent dimension (Conn para26). He learned English, French, Italian and Spanish. Gradually his company (Gestfute) gained contacts around the world. Portuguese and South American players and managers are some of the contacts gained by Mendes. The guardian describes him as a talented man, simply because he could convince players and both clubs for transfer deals on payment of huge sums of money. Since 1997 to 2014, Mendes has been involved in many transfers ranging from £ 6.7m to £ 71m, which is an achievement and credited him making his name and his company known. He has been the one behind the biggest deals this summer as reported by the guardian pages. Mendes remains to be a top player’s agent since he represents many world coaches and footballers. How he relates with them all makes the deals easy for him to transact. Although Mendes negotiation skills may not be liked by some individuals, some like Emilio Macedo Victorias’ president approves his work. Mendes describes his transfers as an export business; where he brings a lot of money in the country. All in all, Mendes remains to be the best investor and the richest man in the football world. Work cited Conn, David . Jorge Mendes: the most powerful man in football? . http://www.theguardian.com. N.p., 22 Sept. 2014. Web. 17 Oct. 2014. . Read More