Top 5 Sports Agents – The Most Powerful People in Sport

Image source: MissChatter on Flickr / CC BY via Wikimedia Commons They are deciding the faith of top athletes and earning millions during their work, arranging contracts and transfers between the clubs. Probably you have only heard of some of them yet, but believe us, these top 5 sports agents are some of the most powerful men in the world of sport.  You can reach the top via only a few prestigious clients or having lots of less famous names. One thing is common, most of them are likely to come from football or baseball. The reason behind this is simple, these are the sports where agents can earn the most commission. Just think about the signing of some of the best football players for a ridiculous amount of money. Their agents are earning a lot from them as well as you can see below.

Top 5 sports agents - Jonathan Barnett was No1 in 2019

We need to start our list of the top 5 sports agents with Jonathan Barnett, who has negotiated more than $1.28 billion in contracts and transfer fees. He has earned more than $128 million in commission the last year. He defeated long-reigning baseball agent Scott Boras, who fell down to the second position. Barnett’s success is partly thanks to the transfer of 20-year-old Joao Felix, who moved from Benfica to Atletico Madrid in a €126 million deal last year. This is the third-highest ever paid for a footballer, after Neymar and Mbappe. If Joao was worth that amount is another question, as he has only scored two goals so far in La Liga. You can make a bet on Atletico Madrid’s next game at bet365. Barnett has been in the cream of the sports agents for a long time. He has a clientele of Gareth Bale, Saul Niguez, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, and Jordan Pickford as well. He was behind the move of Bale from Tottenham to Real Madrid which was a world record fee at that time. But he hasn’t always dealt with footballers, eg. Barnett was also managing two heavyweight world boxing champions, Lennox Lewis and Michael Brent at the same time.

Scott Boras - Losing the top spot

As we mentioned, we can find the former top sports agent, Scott Boras in second place. Boras is managing the record amount of $2.38 billion in active contracts. His company, Boras Corporation is due $119 million in commission. His agency represents 175 baseball clients and it is the most valuable single-sport agency in the world. Boras was playing baseball as well, though not on the same level as his clients. After an injury, he had to retire. Then he was working as a lawyer, representing drug companies before starting to work as a baseball agent. He has definitely made a great decision with his career change, as he has become one of the greatest sports agents. During his 31 years, he has been the father of several record-setting contracts. Starting from $50 million up to Bryce Harper’s $330million worth contract with Philadelphia Phillies. They have the odds of 18.00 to win this season, check all the baseball odds at bet365.

The most famous sports agent - Jorge Mendes

Probably it’s enough to say about Mendes, that he represents Christiano Ronaldo. It means he negotiated his $117 million transfer from Real to Juventus and helped him rake in $109 million. Certainly, the Portuguese have other clients as well, like David de Gea, Diego Costa, James Rodriguez or even Jose Mourinho. He has been selected the Best Agent of the Year six consecutive times at the Globe Soccer Awards between 2010 and 2015. Mendes started his career at home, with Portuguese players, but got the breakthrough after assisting Mourinho’s move from Porto to Chelsea. Then he was building a list of clients like Ricardo Carvalho, Paulo Ferreira, and Luiz Felipe Scolari. And then in 2003, he supervised the transfer of Christiano Ronaldo from Sporting to Manchester United, which was the start of a very fruitful relationship. According to online sportsbooks in Portugal, he was earning £4 million from Ronaldo’s next transfer from United to Real. But it’s not a one-sided relationship, as Ronaldo gave a Greek island to Mendes as a wedding present.

Jeff Schwartz - The world’s most powerful basketball agent

Schwartz, who is also the president and founder of Excel Sports Management,  has $1,8 billion in active contracts, and $72.5 million in commission. He recently negotiated a deal of $170 million for Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray. And another one for $178 million for Milwaukee Bucks forward Khris Middleton. If you’re a fan of the NBA just visit bet365 site to make a bet. So business is not going badly for the ex-lawyer, who started his managing career with tennis players like Pete Sampras and Martina Hingis. Later he established his own business which he extended in 2011 with golf and baseball.

Mino Raiola - The mastermind

Raiola is another football agent, he represents Marco Verratti, Lorenzo Insigne, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. And as online sportsbooks news in Portugal has announced, he was behind Paul Pogba’s €105 million transfer deal to Manchester United in 2016. He had a commission of $70 million last year, with more than $700 million in negotiated deals. He was born in Italy, but actually grew up in the Netherlands, where he started to play football, but gave up his football career early. Like many other agents, he also studied law, but what it might not be that common, that he also speaks seven languages. Raiola started his agent career with arranging Dutch players move to Italy, then in 1996, he assisted Pavel Nedved’s move to Lazio. Now he is one of the most powerful football agents in Europe.