The Siya crew spoke to a top agent in SA to get their expert understanding on what’s going on. For obvious reasons, the agent will remain anonymous.

“When a player doesn’t have an agent, it puts him at a disadvantage on issues like contract negotiations. Most clubs enjoy it when a player enters into the negotiations without an agent because they know that chances are they will save big on what they might have to pay if an agent was involved. In Leonardo Castro’s scenario, who is reportedly on around a R4 million package per annum, he could lose more than half of that figure in his next deal if he was to extend his deal with Chiefs because of his age. The boy is 32 and is injury-prone and there is no way that the club would keep him on the same package or increase it because of his lack of adequate contribution to the team in recent seasons. Moreover, clubs know that players don’t know about the most essential aspects of contracts, and in Castro’s case, Chiefs could capitalize on that and get to benefit if they were to decide to keep him.

As an agent, there are many ways which I know of that we use to negotiate players’ contracts with club owners and their management. A player, especially a striker, can have a smaller monthly salary on paper but could earn more than many of his teammates and other members of the team depending on how his contract is structured. A player’s job is to focus only on the field of play and everything else, including contract negotiations, is the role of an agent. A player without an agent is likely to miss out on a number of things, including endorsements, which could consist of technical sponsors, cars and others, as well as image rights. You can ask few players around the league what image rights are and a number of them wouldn’t know. A player wouldn’t know that when he gets introduced into the field with one minute remaining of the match, it works for him as he will still be getting paid extra if those particulars of the deal were negotiated for him by the agent.”