BERLIN, Germany — In the Estrel Hotel, a 20-minute drive to the southeast of the German capital, in a room filled with 160 numbered desks, officials from more than 300 clubs and representatives of more than 80 agencies are gathered to talk transfers.
There are owners and general managers, sporting directors and scouts, agents and data analysts. All of them arranging and engaging in 15-minute, face-to-face meetings with the goal of getting ahead of the game before the summer transfer window opens. “I say to my wife it’s like speed dating,” says Luke Sassano, chief scout at Major League Soccer’s Nashville SC.
Welcome to TransferRoom, where football’s transfer market goes into overdrive.
Nashville SC are one of 12 MLS clubs represented. There are 17 from the Premier League, including each of the big six — Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham. Others from around the world include Ajax, Roma, Juventus, Bayer Leverkusen, RB Leipzig, Sporting CP and Galatasaray. All in all, there are 303 clubs from 73 leagues in 47 countries packed into one room.
Meetings are arranged via an app, which assigns a table number — the room looks and feels like a giant chess tournament given the precise layout of tables and chairs — to proceedings once both sides have agreed a time. In the room, a digital clock on a giant green screen hanging overhead counts down and when the bell rings three times, it’s time to move on. Ding, ding, ding. Time to move to the next table, the next meeting, the next transfer.
“There’s a lot of important information being exchanged before the transfer window,” TransferRoom director of football relations Simon Ankersen tells ESPN, as he stands on a balcony overlooking the flurry of activity below.
“Since the pandemic, Zoom and Microsoft Teams have become a lot more popular, but we still like to get in front of people. Shake their hand, see their body language. It’s the best way. I’ve just strategically chosen to accept people that I wanted to see. I’ve just met two Brazilian agents and connected them with our guys in South America. They didn’t previously know each other, but now that communication is open.”
Other clubs have a more specific approach. Some are looking to recruit players to fill certain positions, or are hoping to drum up interest in players they want to move on ahead of the summer window.
With a minute to go before each meeting ends, the bell rings. It signals that there’s 60 seconds to stand up, shake hands, check the app and move to their next assigned table.
“Every meeting is different,” one Premier League recruitment specialist tells ESPN. “Our conversations are mostly about what profiles and positions we’ll be looking for in the next window and beyond.
“Another part is to meet people in different regions where we might not have many contacts. We want to get chatting to agencies in regions that we’ve targeted: it’s about gaining an understanding of that region.
“If I’ve set the meeting, I’ve always had an agenda. Why have we done it? Who are we going to talk about? The first 60 seconds sets the tone. You know then whether you’re going to get something out of it.”
It can be a complicated business. Stockport County are in the play-off positions in League One — English’s football’s third tier — and don’t know yet whether they’ll stay in the same division next season or play in the Championship, one step away from the Premier League.
“We’re working to multiple scenarios,” Dale Hagen, Stockport’s first team scouting operations manager, tells ESPN. “We’re looking at multiple lists, so a League One list and a Championship list. Some players fit on both lists, some don’t.
“This is the work we’re doing in February, March and April so when May hits and you’ve got your brief for the season ahead, you can then act on your list because your due diligence has been done. It makes us more efficient.
“You can get information from 12 clubs in a day, and that’s not including the other networking outside the main room. I can go home and update on around 70 or 80 players.”
“Gathering information is the key thing”
“Usually in the meetings, I’m asking what is the situation of the club,” Paolo Sardo, general manager of P&P Sport Management tells ESPN. “It’s really important to know the coach, the system of play, the squad. We know our players very well and we want our players to show all their potential in the right situation.
“Then, I’m asking what are they searching for? In March, clubs are already preparing for the next season so we can understand their situation.”
The work doesn’t stop once the meetings end. “Usually after the summit it takes a few days to send all the players through and then a sporting director will pass the lists to his scouts,” says Lever.
“We have a big network (around 130 agents), but it’s about maximising it. If a player gets one or two offers or he gets four or five, that’s a much better choice. That’s what we’re trying to get here. We can get players on the map for quite a few clubs.”
For now, TransferRoom is limited to well-established agencies, but others still make the trip. Agents without access to the main room hang out in the Estrel Hotel lobby hoping to grab a sporting director or general manager on their way out. If they can get a player’s name in the head of the right person, then you never know what might happen.
The hope for everyone in Berlin — whether in the main meeting room, the networking area or the lobby — is that the conversations lead to transfer business in the summer.
“I’m here without a pass,” one agent tells ESPN. “I won’t get 15 minutes, but I might get 10 seconds to mention a player or swap numbers. Sometimes that’s all it takes to get something started.”
The next summit is in Buenos Aires, Argentina in June before another in Madrid, Spain in early August. Scheduled for the middle of the summer window, the Madrid meeting is branded as a “deal day” when the talk becomes more about getting transfers over the line ahead of the European transfer deadlines at the end of the month. For now, with two months left of the current European campaign, the conversations are focused on laying the groundwork.
“Recruitment is the area of a club that can make the most money, but it can also cost you the most money,” says Hagen.
On Tuesday evening, while the last formal meetings are being held, two smart, suited men are stood talking at one of the tall tables in the networking area. Laptops are open and notebooks are out alongside two small glasses of beer.
The conversation, between the sporting director of a Swiss top-flight club and a member of a Premier League recruitment team, has turned to a player the Swiss club believe is ready to make the step up to one of Europe’s top-five leagues. They want to cash in and they’re keen to learn whether the team in question is looking for a player of his age, position and profile. Notes are taken, data inputted and the meeting ends with a handshake and the promise to keep in touch.
Next door, the bell rings for the final time and the summit officially comes to a close.
Lever expects “99%” of the conversations to come to nothing. Sometimes, though, the seed of an idea turns into something bigger.
“It can happen very quickly,” he says. “We’ve had some deals in the past like Mark Flekken, the Brentford goalkeeper, that started at a TransferRoom summit. That was a big deal for us and great for him to get to the Premier League.
“The seed of that started at a summit, but then there’s so much work to do after. Everyone has to agree — the clubs, the player, the agent. It’s about planting seeds everywhere.”
