Luke Sutton - The Life of a Sports Agent

The Life of a Sports Agent

To my beautiful fiance, Jo, for your unconditional love and support of me and our gorgeous family. You live and breathe everything with me. Thank you and I love you with all my heart.

Also by Luke Sutton

Back from the Edge: Mental Health and Addiction in Sport (Pen & Sword, 2019)

The Middleman

Luke Sutton

First published in Great Britain in 2020 by

Pen & Sword White Owl

An imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire - Philadelphia

Copyright Luke Sutton, 2020

ISBN 978 1 52673 699 4

eISBN 978 1 52673 700 7

Mobi ISBN 978 1 52673 701 4

The right of Luke Sutton to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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I have been a sports agent for nearly a decade and almost any sporty guy I meet from a different walk of life says they would love to do what I do.

It always makes me think about the reality of what sports agents do is it really that amazing? And why does everyone think it is so amazing? It cant all be down to Jerry Maguire!

We certainly have the fortune of walking with some sporting gods, and there is no question that that is truly magical. To be within the inner circle of a sporting genius and see what makes them tick, the hidden challenges they face, and then their performance in the sporting arena under the highest pressure, is nothing but the greatest privilege.

But what about everything in between? The things that other people dont really see? As I write this, I feel like I am giving this a negative connotation, but thats not necessarily true. There is much about being a sports agent that makes you believe there is nothing better to do in the world, other than playing sport yourself. But there is a lot involved.

Some really good and some really shit.

In essence, a sports agent is the ultimate middleman in the middle of lots of people with lots of expectation and lots of potential conflict. You sit in between players and their families, clubs, sponsors, fans, media, coaches, managers, physios, financial advisers, friends, mortgage advisers, wives, husbands, girlfriends, boyfriends the list goes on and on. You are in the middle of all these people, trying to manage their expectations, and at the same time having to find a way to enable your client, the player, to go out there and achieve everything possible from their career.

Your phone doesnt stop ringing and beeping, and you are the first person that people want to blame if it is too uncomfortable for them to blame each other, or themselves. Ever heard of the report from a football club that the agent was to blame for a falling-out with a player? Maybe the club and the player just fell out between themselves, but it was much more convenient to blame the agent. Ever heard of reports that an agent has been behaving immorally? Perhaps a player, a club or even a sponsor was behaving in that manner, but again, it is much easier the blame the agent.

You are the middleman the first to be blamed and often the last to be praised. But you know what job youre in, so you can have no complaints. And, for all the pain, there are times that are so extraordinarily wonderful that they melt away all the troubles and allow you a moment of total euphoria.