TransferRoom, the platform that wants to simplify the transfer window
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5:00 p.m., August 15, 2022, amended to 5:07 p.m., August 15, 2022
On the transfer market, finding happiness would therefore be as easy as a click. In essence, this is the promise of TransferRoom, a platform that offers to connect clubs at scale and speed to adjust their squad. Since the subject is primarily a matter of networks, but it also attracts layers of more or less troublesome intermediaries, the idea is to be as direct as possible. The decision-makers of the subscribing clubs are thus connected in a kind of intranet: in addition to the messaging service, they can both display their needs and, in the opposite direction, expose the players they are ready to transfer or lend. Possibly by displaying the financial and salary conditions. The discussion can therefore quickly engage. TransferRoom claims a client portfolio of nearly 700 clubs. Distributed in sixty countries and one hundred divisions.
When the Danish entrepreneur Jonas Ankersen, then just thirty years old, built his project in 2017, he had in mind to make it “A tool as important for football clubs as Bloomberg is for financial players”. The Anglo-Saxons soon followed, so much so that almost the entire Premier League has the service. In France, 14 Ligue 1 and 8 Ligue 2 clubs are also in the game, Rennes, Metz and Paris FC being the latest entrants.
Even PSG is in the loop. “Except that he hardly ever answers when asked on the messaging system, laughs a French sports director. A bit like the big English clubs, the product is especially useful for them to loan players to whom they have signed a first professional contract. » Most high-end teams even have a specialist in the matter, called loans manager, like Felipe Saad in Marseille.
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Time saving
TransferRoom estimates that, since last summer, fifty transactions involving French clubs have been generated via the service, 80% of them with a foreign counterpart. « Through this, for example, I was able to discuss with leaders in South Africa or Colombia, saving a considerable amount of time », appreciates Brendan MacFarlane, head of recruitment in Toulouse. There, President Damien Comolli and he each have an account.
On the side of Grenoble (Ligue 2), after six months of free trial, a two-year subscription was contracted last summer. “I had explained to my president that it was a good tool, complementary to Wyscout, focused on videos, and InStat, focused on data”, supports Laurent Dechaux, the director of football, who has planned to equip his brand new club, Aris Salonika (Greece). The Isère club found material there for a major sale, that of Charles Pickel to Famalicão (Portuguese D1) for 1.5 million euros. The cost of a subscription? It varies according to the level of the club and its standing. In Ligue 2, count between 7,000 and 10,000 euros per year depending on the options.
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A tool as important for football clubs as Bloomberg is for financial players
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At the edge of the transfer window, the company personifies contacts via forums where affiliate leaders are invited. The last was held on June 16 in Madrid in the presence, according to the organizer, of 180 actors from 45 countries. Barcelona, Arsenal and Juve, for example, sent an emissary there. On the menu, speed dating sessions: twelve minutes flat face to face before moving on to another table. Each time, a recognized actor turns into a speaker to open the session. In March, it was Paul Mitchell, sporting director of Monaco. During the pandemic, this Deal Day continued in videoconference mode.
For the past year, agents – seriously verified, we are assured – have been authorized to integrate the platform. Like a cut to the original philosophy, consisting in facilitating over-the-counter discussions between clubs, at least initially. « Basically it’s a closed network, but here we find ourselves inundated with messages from agents throughout the year, sighs Laurent Dechaux. There is a form of parasitism. » And therefore the risk of returning to a more traditional trading model.
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