UP291 Mo Salah's Agent on the Meaning of Transfer Deadline Day

Mo Salah was a teenager playing for Cairo-based club Arab Contractors in the Egyptian Premier League, when he was spotted by Sascha Empacher, the founder of the SPOCS football agency.  Today, Salah is one of the world's greatest players, after a series of transfers took from Basel, Chelsea, Roma and to his current home, Liverpool. Empacher's business has also grown considerably, making him ideally placed to star in the recent documentary, called Deadline Day: Football’s Transfer Window, produced by Pitch International and available to watch on Sky Documentaries and NOW. This is a conversation about the role of football agents, the myths and the reality of what they do, set against a backdrop of proposed legislation of the agency market by FIFA. We discuss the impact of American ownership in the Premier League and compare that to the relatively sluggish financial performance of Bundesliga clubs and how that impacts on their ability to develop talent; what professionalisation of the agency market would mean and the complex job of nurturing, and marketing, footballers from Africa. Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.