Raymond Sparkes: UK's Longest Serving Football Agent

BroPod

Raymond Sparkes is UK’s longest serving football agent, having been in the business since 1991. In running ProStar Management, he represented up to 70 clients at one point, including high-profile clients such as Celtic legends Tommy Burns, John Collins, and Artur Boruc. At one point he represented 8 of 11 players in the Celtic line-up. Further, he brokered the first two Bosman deals in the UK. He recently completed his Master of Sports Directorship.
In this candid and in-depth conversation, Raymond talks to Ciaran and Markus about how the industry has changed since he had to put up a 100k bond to become an agent, the delicacy of managing clients and the main reason a career can break down, the all-importance of knowing "what good looks like", the type of players he looks for and why, transitioning to a different generation of players, the accuracy of Jerry Maguire, and the art of strategic positioning from a network and commercial perspective with a certain David Beckham as an example + plenty of anecdotes!
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