The role of so-called ‘super agents’ in facilitating some of football’s most lucrative transfers simply can not be overlooked, with a select few responsible for brokering deals that, in turn, have bumped up their own personal fortune. We take a look at the very richest football agents to see just how profitable the industry can be for these transfer middle-men.
Richest Football Agents According to Their Net Worth
Jose Otin – $23.9 million
Operating out of the Spanish capital, Jose Otin is the mastermind behind one of La Liga‘s most prominent agency networks.
Bahia Internacional has 125 players on the books, including households names such as former Barcelona winger Pedro, Sevilla veteran Jesus Navas and ex-Bayern Munich enforcer Javi Martinez.
Although the vast majority of players represented by Otin are slightly past their best before date, or are worth very little in the context of an inflated market, the combined total of his portfolio stands at little under €115 million.
Former Newcastle United and Borussia Dortmund midfielder Mikel Merino is currently the most expensive player on Bahia’s books at a market value of €50 million.
Otin’s fortune is estimated to have dropped slightly since the likes of former clients Fernando Torres have been and gone, but in 2018 he was named at number 20 in Forbes‘ wealthiest sports owners list.
According to Sports Agents Blog, Jose Otin has an estimated net worth of around $23.9 million, which is enough for him to sneak in among the richest football agents.
Volker Struth – $41.8 million
From Spain to Germany for our next one, where Volker Struth has had a stranglehold on the Bundesliga agency market since creating his football consultancy company, Sports360, in 2007.
A self-made millionaire long before he ventured into elite football representation, Struth used his personal fortune from an office supplies business to make a fast and meaningful impact in the Bundesliga.
Struth currently has 111 players on his roster, amounting to a combined market value of €349.14 million. The vast majority of players represented by Sports360 ply their trade in Germany, with Niklas Sule and Timo Werner the most high-profile among them.
However players living further afield, namely Real Madrid’s Toni Kroos and Newcastle’s Fabian Schar are also represented by Struth’s agency.
In the aforementioned list of richest sports agents compiled by Forbes, Struth’s highest position came in 2018 where has ranked eighth, although he has since dropped out of the top 15.
Nevertheless, a personal fortune that has been steadily increasing long before becoming a football agent now stands at around $41.8 million.
Jorge Mendes – $100 million
Alongside the late Mino Raiola, Jorge Mendes is arguably football’s most renowned agent having single-handedly brokered some of the largest transfers ever.
Having started out in his native Portugal almost three decades ago, Mendes was responsible for spotting the likes of Ricardo Quaresma and Cristiano Ronaldo at a young age. His first real international breakthrough came in 2004 however, when he managed to take Porto’s enigmatic Jose Mourinho to English shores as Chelsea’s new manager.
Although the pair have now split, Cristiano Ronaldo was undoubtedly his most important client, with Mendes key to facilitating all of his subsequent transfers after leaving Sporting Lisbon. He is said to have made £4 million alone from Ronaldo’s then-world record transfer from Manchester United to Real Madrid.
His agency company Gestifute is the second-most lucrative in world football in terms of combined market value, with its 128-player portfolio worth around €1.34 billion.
Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva, Darwin Nunez and Joao Felix are the most renowned players currently represented by Mendes, who has also ventured into the world of cycling representation with his own company Polaris Sports.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Jorge Mendes has a personal fortune of $100 million.
Jonathan Barnett – $150 million
ICM Stellar Sports, created by one of the wealthiest agents not just in football but across a multitude of sports, has gone on to represent some of the most successful athletes in the world.
Jonathan Barnett is a true heavyweight in the industry, with his first ever sporting client coming in the form of one of cricket’s greatest ever batsmen, Brian Lara.
Since then he has been credited as being the man to shine a light on Lennox Lewis’ career as a young boxer, but his footballing endeavours are where he has really made a name for himself.
Forbes listed him as the richest sports agent in the world in 2019, having previously bridged the gap in deals involving Gareth Bale’s then-world record transfer to Real Madrid in 2013, and latterly Jack Grealish’s £100m to City in 2021 – the biggest deal in English football at the time.
CAA Stellar, the football branch of his sports agency, is the largest in football with 809 players currently represented. At a total market value of €1.90 billion, Barnett has players all over the globe, the most notable of which include Eduardo Camavinga, Jack Grealish, Ivan Toney and James Ward-Prowse.
Building an agency empire as large as this has of course resulted in Barnett acquiring a substantial net worth, believed to be $150 million according to Wealthy Pipo.
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