The former striker of Dynamo and the national team of Ukraine, Roman Zozulya, openly talked about creating an agency company together with Yevhen Konoplyanka and the difficulties associated with this activity.
Roman Zozulya. Photo — polissyafc.com— Roman, as far as I know, you together with Yevhen Konoplyanka founded an agency company, can you tell us more about it?
— Yes, it’s true. We, as footballers who relatively recently finished our careers and faced various agents, saw what gaps they have, especially in Ukraine. We observed the strategies agents work with, what their vision of the process is, so we decided to change things with Zhenya, to add what we were missing from our agents during our football career.
— So can we say that you have an agency with a “human face”?
— Yes, absolutely. You can ask the footballers we work with, we didn’t take a single penny extra from anyone.
Both Zhenya and I were burnt by agents more than once, we know very well how they can beautifully tell stories and soothe the parents. We strive to break this system and offer competition in the market.
Our agency is already starting to worry competitors, so I think we are on the right path. In just two months of work, we have 40 footballers, in one transfer window we made over 15 transfers, some agents can’t boast such results even after 5 years of work. For me, these are phenomenal figures for a start, especially since I analyzed how other agencies work and their indicators, some have been working for 10 years, for the first five of which, they didn’t show such results having only two footballers. Others have been working for 15 years and still don’t even have 40 footballers.
— Does your company already have a name?
— Yes, we have — “Talented Birds”. “Талановиті Пташки”, if in Ukrainian. Zozulya is a bird, Konoplyanka is too, that’s why.
— As far as I know, you mainly deal with former players of Dnipro and Dnipro-1, is this true?
— No, we don’t only have Dnipro footballers, we communicate with many others. But it’s very difficult to enter this market because of the monopoly. I will tell you this: the corruption here is on a larger scale than in the Verkhovna Rada, I didn’t even expect such because I wasn’t very interested in this area when I was a footballer. I have no hair on my head, but if I did, it would definitely stand on end because of what is happening here.
— Can you name the most well-known clients of your company?
— You see, we just recently entered this market, so with some footballers we are just communicating for now, because many already have their agents with whom they signed contracts for 2 years, for example. If we refer to “Transfermarkt”, then it is probably Vladyslav Kocherhin, because he costs 1.5 million euros.
But until we overcome corruption, it will be very difficult. For example, there are teams where players want to work with us, but simply cannot due to the club's policy. Due to the lack of healthy competition in the agents’ market, some teams do not get the desired results because they are forced to take players from their “own” agent instead of taking someone better from another.
Then they start firing coaches, blaming them, but the problem lies elsewhere.
— Previously, you were involved in a children's football academy, agency activity is a new sphere for you. What are your impressions of starting in a new niche?
— I love helping people, and this is also a kind of help, so I enjoy it, besides, we communicate a lot with young guys, there is an opportunity to share my experience, I really like it.
I talk to the parents of the players, after receiving a contract, they usually call and ask what the catch is, because we, unlike others, don’t have clauses regarding various fines, percentages, and so on. And there are no hidden pitfalls with us, if it were possible to work without contracts, we would work without them, but it doesn’t function that way. If I communicate with a guy without a contract, and tomorrow someone comes and offers his mom 10,000 dollars, for example, she will say that she no longer needs our help. You have to protect yourself, because you work a lot, and then someone steals all the clients and that’s it.
— You said that in some clubs players can’t have other agents, did you mean clubs from the so-called “Vadym Shabliy pool”?
— I won’t name names, but the press knows it all anyway. It’s not just a few clubs; in fact, there are many: in one, one agent brings players, in another — only another, this applies not only to those you mentioned. This is abnormal; it shouldn’t be like this. I think that over time everything will be restructured and change for the better.
— So you entered this market to break the system?
— Yes. Wherever I go, I want to break the system. In Ukraine, everywhere you look, it’s the same as here. Everywhere there are their systems. If you want to become president of the Football Federation, you also need to enter and break the system. Swimming with the current, you can’t change anything; if there will be any changes, they will only be cosmetic, the entire vertical will remain the same. Moreover, if you only change one person, it won’t bring any benefit because he will think that he is improving and changing something, while corruption and lawlessness will continue below. If a car has problems with the engine, and instead of repairing it, you paint it and put on new rims, it won’t drive any better because of that.
— Regarding the national team, is it true that you won’t be called up if you don’t have that agent? What do you know about this?
— It seems to me that this is more of a myth that agents simply use for their benefit. They then call parents and say: «If you want your son to play in the youth or U21 national team, you need to sign a contract with me», and parents believe this.
Some agents find out in advance who will be called up to the national team even before the lists are published, and they also use this. Personally, for me, this is nonsense; if a footballer is indeed of quality, he should play regardless of who his agent is.
— Is this a new scheme of our time or a continuation, so to speak, of previous corruption traditions?
— There was no such thing before at all! Nobody ever approached me and said: «You won’t play if you don’t sign a contract with someone», but now this is happening in every club.
Even contrary to this, Ihor Mykhailovych Surkis told us: «You don’t need agents, I will help you myself if something doesn’t suit you» and so on.
Today in youth teams they just say: «You won’t get playing time until you sign a contract with an agent», that’s when they [dishonest agents] take them in numbers and wait until someone strikes it big. Coaches, directors say this directly, so the player has no one to complain to. One of my guys did not sign such a contract, he had to run around for half a year just carrying cones; he wasn’t allowed to train. How can a young guy withstand such mental pressure for half a year?
— How did the situation get resolved with him?
— We found him a team a long time ago. I was talking with him and his mom every day back then, calming him down. Now he is playing steadily, even receiving a larger salary; he likes everything. And I want to work with him because he has character. Far from everyone could withstand such a half a year, especially since he was a key player, preparing for the first team.
He called me himself last winter when we weren’t even working yet, only analyzing the market, asking to join us. I talked to the coaches, watched his games; the guy is indeed a quality player. We found him three options, he chose the one he liked the most.
Ihor Lysenko
