The president of a South American club was making the demands, whilst the deal on the table from a French club would multiply her salary by 10.
When we closed the deal he had settled for less than 10% of his opening ask, but it took several counter proposals and some mind games to get him there.
I was negotiating the transfer across 3 languages and 2 polarising negotiating styles.
Don't get me wrong she was a very good player. But at 18, and only just capped internationally, she was nowhere near world-record status he was demanding, and when the French club scoffed at the asking price, the president started playing games.
Tactic 1️⃣: you don’t believe in her
"You clearly don't believe in her if you're not willing to pay the money," he accused the French club.
"As soon as this call is finished, I'm going to get on the phone to her and tell her that you clearly don't think she's good enough" he continued.
You can imagine the awkward moment of me live translating the message for the French club executives.
It was an unexpected and bizarre tactic in the circumstances. The French club were stunned by this almost schoolboy style of negotiating. But I knew if the president wanted to play games, the best strategy was to play them right back. So I asked him:
“If you’re asking for a world-record transfer fee for the player, why isn’t she even in the top half of salaries at your club? And if this transfer doesn’t come off, will you commit to making her the best-paid player at the club?”
He went silent for a minute. Then I followed it up with: “Perhaps it’s you that doesn’t believe in her?”
He ignored the questions and immediately changed strategy.
Tactic 2️⃣: she doesn’t want to leave
His new line was that she didn’t want to leave, and that these unwanted approaches were distracting her and destabilising the club.
Except, she very much did want to go. Her salary was going up 10X, this would change her entire family's livelihoods, and she could see her pathway progressing in Europe.
But the games went on, and we were at a stalemate. Her absence in the room had left an information vacuum, which he was filling with his own version of what she wanted, only she could straighten that out.
Fortunately, she had the bravery to go in herself (not easy for an 18-year-old to go into the club president's office and insist that she wants to leave). It's a lot harder for a president to be so clearly blocking such a life-changing move directly to a player than it is for agents when the player is not in the room. So that was the end of the second tactic.
Tactic 3️⃣: 90% sell-on clause
He eventually relented on the transfer fee. Agreed to our valuation. But he wanted a 90% sell-on fee from any future transfer.
Once again, completely unworkable for the French club. At her age the next few seasons would be about development, and there’s no incentive to develop a player whose value will eventually go almost entirely back to the club that sold her.
To be fair to him, there was some sense in the strategy. A sell-on can be a win-win. It was the % that needed to be much more reasonable.
This is where my role as mediator came in: finding the number both clubs could call fair.
The South American club had taken her through their academy and trained her up to a full international, so they deserved value for that work.
The French club’s incentive was to develop her and, one day, make a profit on her sale.
Fortunately, we agreed on a more equitable % , and that was the agreement in place.
3 blockages & 1 transfer:
A world-record demand, a claim about what the player wanted, and a 90% sell-on: each one had to be negotiated, circumvented or agreed before the deal could move forward.
That’s a fairly typical example of the complexities that can be involved in an international transfer once you add languages, borders and cultures to the negotiation.
The French club had wanted a collaborative negotiation, and the game playing frustrated them, but the deal got done.
If you want to represent players or work for club, this is the part of the job you can’t learn from a textbook : reading which game the other side is playing, anchoring and countering, and knowing when you have to look for a back door