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Without negotiation, transfers would never happen. But how do all the moving parts — from initial interest to final details — come together?
The Athletic paired two experienced sporting directors — Nordsjaelland’s Jan Laursen and Orlando City’s Ricardo Moreira — at a table to discuss the process.
“Negotiations are like a football match and you try to take the personal stuff out. Do your best, work hard and then afterwards you have to be able to meet up again,” says Laursen, who has negotiated deals for players such as Mohammed Kudus, Mikkel Damsgaard and Simon Adingra.
“It’s an art. Sometimes you offer five and someone asks for 20, so there’s an art to negotiation when you feel comfortable to ask your ownership group for a little bit more,” adds Moreira, whose key deals include signing Uruguay international Facundo Torres and negotiating US international Daryl Dike’s first move to England at Barnsley.
“There’s pressure. He’s defending his club. I’m defending my club. The agent is defending the player’s career and we have to find a sweet spot where everybody is happy.”
Laursen and Moreira sat down to chat in Rome at the TransferRoom summit, which features representatives from around 300 clubs networking in a series of 15-minute speed dating-style meetings. Deals can be sealed in these conversations, but they are the exception rather than the rule.
Ricardo Moreira: We wouldn’t normally be sat opposite each other. Sporting director contact would usually be phone calls or WhatsApps at the end stage of the negotiation, unless we have a previous relationship, which is preferred.
Jan Laursen: WhatsApp is controlling the football world. I’d rather have a Teams or Zoom call to be able to look into someone’s eyes and to save time on travelling.
Moreira: Yes, WhatsApp controls our life but you have to be careful what you say. We’re both in the same situation where you buy and sell, talk to different clubs, you have academy situations to deal with, and you’re talking to 400 people at the same time.
Laursen: The pandemic was not a great thing, but it taught us some new stuff, especially to do more online calls.
The Kudus transfer to Ajax was the first big transfer to be conducted during the pandemic and we did a virtual handshake when it was completed. It was very important because transfers are a vital part of our business and we didn’t know how the market would develop.
Nordsjaelland’s sale of Mohammed Kudus to Ajax represented big business (Srdjan Stevanovic/Getty Images)
Moreira: The online world has really helped, but the best deals are done one-on-one, either in our club or at another club. Sitting down and saying, ‘This is how much I have, that’s how much you want’, and working out a plan.
As sporting directors, we take care of not only the players, but we have to talk to the agents, to owners, to be the human resources for people in the training facilities. But people forget that the most important thing is having a successful team on the field and the rest will follow.
So if you have some time to take one or two days to go in person and talk to a club or an agent you can be more creative and it can often be better than exchanging emails, WhatsApps or phone calls.
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Numerous players are proposed to clubs — by official or third-party agents — and it presents a challenge when time is tight.
Moreira: Lots of things don’t end up being concrete. We scout more than we buy or sell. You have to control the market and know all your options for your squad depth first. The agents are part of the deals and like in other professions, you have good ones and bad ones.
Laursen: An important part of the job, especially when you’ve started to do bigger deals, is quick due diligence to work out how serious this negotiation is. We spend a lot of time in our jobs on things that don’t materialise, so it’s important to be as efficient as possible. If it’s a big one, you put everything else aside and focus on that one.
Moreira: There are a lot of WhatsApp, calls and virtual contact with agents and even players, and you often let the agent negotiate the player deal before the sporting director-to-sporting director contact.
Background checks are really important. So it can be a chicken and egg situation. But to (speak to a player of another club) you need some sort of communication with the sporting director of that club, because you don’t want to go behind their back and be talking to his player and getting into his head. You want to be able to look him in the eyes and make sure you’re bringing a guy that’s going to fit the culture and locker room.
Laursen: Most of our players and transfers are academy graduates, so it’s a personal relation and it’s important for us that they get chances to go. Often they knock on your door to say that it’s something they want to do. But good advice is to get in the room, sit together and answer the question, ‘How do we feel?’. I did it recently at home with Mohamed Diomande before he went to Rangers. He felt it was his turn to make the next step (as he’d seen) with Kudus and Mikkel Damsgaard who had already made it to a big club. Those personal conversations are important.
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When it’s clear a player is interested in a move in or out, and another club is willing to negotiate, the conversations can begin in earnest…
Laursen: It’s important to get a feeling that a deal can be reached. Otherwise, all the other stuff doesn’t matter. There are a lot of things to align internally before you look externally, and then there’s a difference whether you are the buyer or the seller, especially when it comes to how much you want to do it.
For example with Brighton, we did two deals — Simon Adingra last year and Ibrahim Osman a few weeks ago — having worked with them before we could see it was a good footballing fit. So you don’t have to look too much into it, which is a relief.
Simon Adingra joined Brighton from Nordsjaelland last year (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
Moreira: The start of the deal is the money: price and structure of the deal, can they pay instalments and spread over X number of years? Living in a cap world in MLS, where you can’t spend more than a certain amount depending on the player, depending on the spot, these things come first.
Laursen: We try to make both things as important: the money and a good sporting fit or next step for them. If they can go hand in hand, it’s perfect. In the end, it’s the player who has to decide whether he wants to make it or not.
What can help the price sometimes is ‘FOMO’, the fear of missing out, when a club wants to take a player early. That’s why I’m happy with the Osman deal, because we got to keep him for the rest of the season because we need transfers, but we also need performance. We were satisfied with the transfer but it was important that he didn’t go straight away. It worked for all parties.
Three main elements of a transfer deal need to be ironed out. The first is the fee, which is often paid in instalments over the term of the contract.
Moreira: You can use data to evaluate and analyse whether a club is asking too much or offering too low for a player. Based on whatever algorithm you want to use.
Laursen: Yes, but we often use different ones…
Moreira: … and that’s the challenge. It even works with the agents who send you data saying a player is worth X million dollars, but you disagree because you’re seeing it from a different perspective.
The second element is the bonuses or add-ons paid by the buying club when a player hits appearance or goalscoring milestones.
Moreira: If the player is doing well, you’re going to happily pay the seller club and the seller club is building trust, because they are selling someone who is producing.
Laursen: If you have a big belief that the player will do well, it’s easier to compromise on the fixed fees and agree higher bonuses. You believe that he will succeed and the buyer is happy to pay more on bonuses because if the player performs, it’s a plus for them.
Events such as TransferRoom can help with networking (TransferRoom)
The third big element is the sell-on percentage.
Moreira: There are different ways of doing that – 10, 15 or 20 per cent. You can say I’ll give you 20 per cent sell-on but if the player is producing and I’m paying you bonuses, you’re going to decrease a little bit your percentage. So you win here and you lose a little bit there. There are no rules, it’s a blank canvas.
Laursen: Normally I say don’t build your financial book future on the sell-on because it’s nice to have, but it’s out of your hands.
We have the add-ons, the sell-on, but selling to a club that is really good at developing players has value, like Kudus going to Ajax. If they do well, your club could do well in the future because they may come back for another one. So you can leave a bit of room in the deal. If there isn’t that feeling, you stand firm.
Moreira: You can sacrifice winning everything in a negotiation if — in the medium or long term — it will be good for your club or perhaps the player coming to replace the one you’re going to sell.
Laursen: The money is important, but it’s also a person we talking about here, a young player’s career.
Moreira: You also have to remember you’re actually asking for the owner’s money to buy something so you’ve got to be 100 per cent sure that it’s going to be successful for the club and him. You don’t ask money from a person to just throw it away.
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The personal touch is important when players arrive, but also depart.
Laursen: When it’s getting close it’s important to let the player go and visit the club. Because we develop the players to be responsible and interested in their careers. It’s not us going there. With Damsgaard (before joining Sampdoria) we sent him to see a league match in Italy so he could feel that it was really something that he wanted to do.
However ‘done’ a deal appears to be, there is always the possibility of a late change. It is important, though, to maintain good conduct in negotiations, no matter how heated they get.
Mikkel Damsgaard (right) needed to be sure he wanted to sign for Sampdoria (Gabriele Maltinti/Getty Images)
Moreira: It’s not uncommon where you develop a relationship with another sporting director and you start a conversation right there. You know he wants to sell, you want to buy, and you discuss the numbers and you’re close to it. You can get everything sorted out with the club but sometimes you don’t get a good feeling in the personal one-on-one with the player.
Laursen: You need to find that balance where people want to work with you again. It’s important that all three parties are happy when we leave the room in the end.
Moreira: It’s all about your reputation. So you should never cross the line or do something in a negotiation that you wouldn’t do in your personal life with someone you care about. Because we’re negotiating a deal now, then in six months we’ll have another one, then in two years another one.
Networking and your reputation are priceless in this business. People will remember. You don’t get second chances.
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So what happens when things don’t go to plan?
Laursen: I’ve had a situation where we’ve developed a really good relationship after someone originally hung up. I’ve learned through all these experiences, to embrace it and not to take it personally.
Moreira: To give up in a negotiation is not something to be ashamed of. You have to know the limits of the club.
Laursen: I’ve done around 100 deals and it’s mentally challenging because you have the responsibility towards the club, but also towards the player, especially the ones that have been through your system. For players, it’s so difficult because they feel their career, life and future are in your hands — and often the agent tries to put it on your shoulders as well. Mutual understanding is vital.
And when the deal is done?
Moreira: It’s similar to what Pele said when he won his third World Cup — there’s no joy, it’s only relief. It’s kind of the same for me. Nowadays many clubs have great scouting departments, networking, data analysis and look in the same markets. The competition is so tough.
Laursen: Yes, it’s a relief, as often it’s a long and exhausting process. But as many of our players are homegrown, you are also really proud and happy that we managed to do it, because they have been through so many of our teams with our staff helping this process. So a transfer represents the work that so many people have contributed towards. It’s a feeling of unity and pride.
(Top photos: Jan Laursen, left, and Ricardo Moreira; Transferroom)
