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Were you striving to become a professional athlete, but just couldn’t make the cut? No problem! You can become a professional sports agent instead, and hang out with fellow sportsmen in arenas and stadiums, all the while you’re raking in millions through commissions. Some of these biggest sports agents on the list make as much as Wall Street bankers, so getting into this business is pretty rewarding.
Jonathan Barnett – $44 million in commissions ($439.6 million in deals)
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If it weren’t for the legendary Mendes, Barnett would definitely be the number one football (soccer) agent. Instead, he has to settle for second place in football, and fourth overall on the list of biggest sports agents. But we doubt he’s hurting too much with $44 million in commissions, after completing deals worth nearly half a billion.
Barnett takes care of his crop of players through the Stellar Group, which boasts a total of 143 players. His clients mainly come from England with some of the following being among the more popular ones: Joe Hart, Luke Shaw, Glen Johnson, Phil Jagielka, Scott Sinclair, Ashley Cole, Richard Wright and others. The biggest name is under his guidance is by no coincidence also the most expensive name in football – Gareth Bale. After completing the switch from Tottenham to Real Madrid in 2013, the Welsh winger became a prized pig instead of being just a local cock (pun intended) with the Spurs.
Volker Struth – $42.4 million in commissions ($424 million in deals)
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Struth is the biggest agent in German football. He’s got all the best German talent in his stable and is known to command massive fees when clubs come calling for his players. Struth and his company SportsTotal have an impressive portfolio that consists of 197 football (soccer) stars. The biggest names on the list are some of the following players in the Bundesliga: Mario Gotze, Toni Kroos, Marco Reus, Benedikt Howedes, Omer Toprak and Gonzalo Castro among others.
When Gotze realized his transfer from Dortmund to Bayern Munich in July 2013, the fee for his services cost the Bavarian side $40 million+ (€37 million), with much of the credit for completing the transfer going to Struth. This made him the most expensive German player for a brief moment, until Mesut Ozil sealed his transfer from Real Madrid to Arsenal in September of that year for $55 million (€50 million). Until now, the German super-agent has made $42.4 million in commissions from all his deals combined, so it’s no surprise he’s among the biggest sports agents in the world.
Tom Condon – $59.4 million in commissions ($1.5 billion in deals)
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Tom Condon is the head of the football division of the Creative Artists Agency, so when you’ll reach the next level in your career you should expect a call from him. Perhaps one of the reasons for his great success is that he understand the nature of the game so well, having been an NFL player himself.
To date, Condon has negotiated contracts amounting to a massive $1.5 billion. Putting his deals together in a pot with other big name agents in his firm, like Jimmy Sexton and Todd France, and the overall business that they brought in over the years adds to a scary figure – $2.6 billion. But despite making nine-digits in total deals, his commission stands at “only” $60 million. That doesn’t really reflect the average cut considering the magnitude of his contracts, although most of us mortals would happily take that money any day.
Jorge Mendes – $95.6 million in commissions ($956 million in deals)
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Jorge Mendes is the biggest agent name in football (soccer). Through his company, Gestifute, he represents a number of high-profile players, with the most notable star being Cristiano Ronaldo. Mendes also represents the likes of: Radamel Falcao, Angel Di Maria, David de Gea, Pepe, James Rodriguez, Diego Costa, Thiago Silva, Eliaquim Mangala, Joao Moutinho and even manager Jose Mourinho, among others.
The Portuguese agent has negotiated some of the biggest deals in football: Ronaldo to Real Madrid (2009 – $132 million), Angel Di Maria to Man Utd (2014 – $86 million) and James Rodriguez to Real Madrid (2014 – $86 million). So far, Mendes has brokered contracts valued close to $1 billion, which basically places him second on the list of the biggest sports agents. But in terms of football alone, there is no agent that can trump him considering the clients he represents and the deals that he’s done.
Scott Boras – $117 million in commissions ($2.3 billion in deals)
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If you’re in baseball and you’re an aspiring athlete looking to make it big in MLB, then Scott Boras is the man you talk to. He’s on the top of the biggest sports agents pyramid. Hands down! His deals total a staggering $2.3 billion, with him taking home around $117 million of that large sum in commissions.
He initially started out his career as an attorney specializing in pharmaceutical law, however he decided that being a baseball agent offers more. Actually, it offers much, much more! He represents all the big names in the sport. Boras even had Alex Rodriguez as a client, for whom he negotiated the biggest deal in sports history back in 2000 when he signed for Texas Rangers on a 10-year $252 million deal.
But looking at the way Jorge Mendes is handling the football (soccer) business, Boras may have to give up his place as the biggest sports agent on the globe. Now of course, the Portuguese probably won’t catch up to the iconic baseball agent in terms of total business deals, but when it comes to commissions, they aren’t that far away. Not to mention the fact that Boras is in his 60s, while Mendes just turned 50 (January 7th), so he plenty of years more to go in the business to become the top dog.