Mastermind behind the mega deal
THE Marquinhos opportunity reveals a lot about the modus operandi of the man who has brought Philippe Coutinho’s £145million Barcelona move to fruition.
It dates to 2012, when Kia Joorabchian suggested to a then struggling Premier League side that the then unknown 17-year-old Corinthians player was just the defender they were looking for.
Impressions count for a lot in football and the club in question were reluctant to be seen as too embedded with one representative. ‘We thought we’d be a laughing stock if the player bombed,’ says a source working at the club at that time. So Marquinhos went to Roma for £4m instead.
Within a year, in July 2013, he moved to PSG for £32m. The French side have since rejected an £80m bid for him, with Chelsea and Barcelona both interested.
For all of the analysis and the planning and the talk about players which goes on at the top of football, there are few individuals with wide enough professional networks to know where the best potential acquisitions reside and how to do something about it.
Joorabchian has developed his by doing the hard yards. It is universally agreed inside football that if the conversation at a central London private members’ club must take until 5am, then he will be there until its conclusion.
He has been demonstrating an ability to spot opportunities — and the conviviality to exploit them — since working as an oil industry trader in his 20s, and later in American hedge funds.
It was when he set up the company Media Sports Investment (MSI) in central London, 14 years ago, bought Brazilian club Corinthians and — with assistance from anonymous backers — spent £50m on the club and players, that he became attuned to the opportunities football presented. He employs staff to help him spot players early. Coutinho has been tracked since he was 12. Javier Mascherano, David Luiz, Willian and Carlos Tevez were all between 16 and 18 when he encountered them.
It is the nature of the relationships he develops with them which seems to secure their commitment to him. It is never obsequious. Players say he will think nothing of telling them they need to buck up and rethink the way they present or conduct themselves.
But when it comes down to negotiating their next move or next contract, he has the market trader’s intuition for how hard he can push to secure the best deal.
‘The public have their opinions about player representatives, but his job is to go and get the best possible deal for his player and I don’t know any who do that better,’ says one director of football who has negotiated with him. ‘There are a lot of people in football who I would not sit around a table with. But if I could have him working on my behalf, I would.’
The 46-year-old has no compunction about offending others in the interests of those he represents. One top manager was left feeling undermined when Joorabchian sought to place a client, also a manager, at a club before the position had been vacated.
But his influence among players who turn out to add huge value has made him hugely influential among clubs. ‘When Barcelona want to sign Coutinho, they can’t call Liverpool up,’ says the director of football. ‘He has connections which mean he will absolutely find a way of getting access to Liverpool’s owners and trying to negotiate. He makes things happen. This is why the big clubs want people like him in their camp.’
He doesn’t seem to burn bridges. Clubs describe his ability to maintain cordiality, even when one of his players is being moved on. ‘You don’t get any nonsense; running down of contracts, that sort of thing,’ said a source at one.
Yet, the course of relationships has not always run smoothly. Manchester City executives Garry Cook and Simon Pearce flew to Milan in 2009 without Joorabchian to undertake final negotiations with Kaka, because they felt they did not want an ‘agent of choice’. Suffice to say, Kaka did not join.
The Coutinho deal takes Joorabchian’s tally of record deals in individual countries to four with Spain joining Brazil (£22m Carlos Tevez), Portugal (£38m Joao Mario) and China (£52m Oscar).
The escalating size of his deals has reflected the extraordinary transfer market inflation of the past decade: from £32.5m Robinho from Real Madrid to City in 2008 and Ramires’s £35m combined fees across moves to Chelsea in 2010 and on to China six years later, to David Luiz’s combined £91m, earned across his two moves to Chelsea and switch to Paris Saint-Germain. Coutinho won’t represent the peak price for long. Britain’s first £200m deal may well be only months away, with an eden Hazard move from Chelsea to Real Madrid likely to command that sum
this summer.