August 18, 2025

Agents: How Much They Earn and Their Impact on Clubs

By Marta Elena Casanova

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Index

Agents and the transfer market

Football agents represent one of the most controversial and costly items on club balance sheets. They are no longer just paid a small fee for facilitating transfers — their role has become a strategic cost that affects budgets, technical decisions, and market policies. In some cases, agent commissions can even match the transfer fee itself, making negotiations more complex and sometimes unsustainable. But how much do football agents actually earn? And how much influence do they have on the transfer market?

The commissions

The payments made to intermediaries for successfully handling a negotiation between a club and a player are crucial. These expenses go beyond transfers and include:

transfers between clubs
contract renewals
negotiated clauses and bonuses
loans or loan returns

Though legitimate, these fees represent a major cost for football clubs. According to the FIFA 2024 report, more than €900 million were spent globally on agent commissions in the first six months of the year — a 42% increase from 2023. European clubs, especially in the Premier League, La Liga, and Serie A, are the biggest spenders, proving just how central agents have become in the football ecosystem.

Agent earnings depend on many factors: the player’s profile, the complexity of the deal, and the agreed percentage with the club or player. Typically, commissions range from 5% to 10% of the transfer fee or gross salary.

In Italy, for example, official FIGC data shows that Serie A clubs spent over €200 million on agent fees in 2024. The biggest spenders were:

Juventus: €33 million
Inter: €29 million
Roma: €22 million
Milan: €20 million

Globally, the most influential and wealthy agents include:

Jorge Mendes (Gestifute), Portuguese agent of Cristiano Ronaldo, Leão, and João Félix
Jonathan Barnett (Stellar Group), who manages Gareth Bale and Jack Grealish
Pini Zahavi, Israeli super-agent behind major deals like Lewandowski and Neymar
Rafaela Pimenta, heir to Mino Raiola’s agency (after his death in 2022), who now manages Haaland and Donnarumma

A transfer involving a top player can earn an agent between €10–20 million, including direct fees and image rights. These numbers highlight the economic weight agents have in modern football.

The burden on clubs

The main issue with commissions is that they often go unreported in official communications, making it difficult to assess their true financial impact.

The consequences for clubs include:

increased fixed costs even for “free” transfers
distortion of actual player value
complications with financial fair play compliance
increased dependence on large agencies

Ultimately, commissions can affect both the club’s financial stability and on-field competitiveness, particularly for those with limited resources.

FIFA’s new rules

In 2024, FIFA introduced new regulations to curb agent commissions, aiming for more transparency and sustainability:

a 10% cap on transfer value for agents representing the selling club
a 3% cap on the player’s salary for their agent
a ban on representing multiple parties in the same deal (e.g., both player and buying club)

However, implementation has been delayed due to ongoing legal challenges by agents. In Italy, the FIGC has started applying more transparent monitoring systems, but full regulation remains a complex and slow-moving process.

A market increasingly controlled by agencies

Agents have become central to the transfer market, but their growing power raises concerns over the system’s sustainability. High commissions inflate transaction values and drain clubs of vital resources — especially those in the middle or lower tiers.

To restore balance, concrete actions are needed: