Manchester United's Aaron-Wan Bissaka and Chelsea's Reece James are two of more than 300 players impacted by a merger between two of the biggest independent football agencies.
On Friday, UK agency Unique Sports Management (USM) announced it will merge with German agency International Sports Management (ISM).
The merger will see the newly formed Unique Sports Group become one of the top five agencies in world football, with a combined client market value of more than £670million.
USM boast Premier League talents including James, Wan-Bissaka, Newcastle forward Callum Wilson and Burnley star Dwight McNeill, as well as international talents like Kevin Volland and Hakan Calhanoglu.
Unique Sports Group joint CEO Will Salthouse said: “We are delighted to welcome ISMG to the Unique family and believe this joint vision will allow us to maximise our European network at a time when interest in UK based players from across the continent continues to grow.
“This alliance allows us to cement our place as the leading agency across the UK and German market.”
Joint CEO Gordon Stipid-Wipfler added: “We are thrilled to expand our exclusive network and management services with Unique Sports Group.
“With this partnership we are establishing our leading role in professional football.”
According to Sky Sports, USM were one of the busiest agencies during the most recent window, playing pivotal roles in a number of summer transfers.
Takehiro Tomiyasu’s deadline day move to Arsenal, Andros Townsend to Everton, Maxwell Cornet to Burnley, Jannik Vestergaard to Leicester, Hwang Hee-chan to Wolves and Marc Guehi’s move from Chelsea to Crystal Palace, were all instigated by USM.
Unique’s portfolio places them in the top 10 according to Transfermarkt, although they are still dwarfed by the biggest players.
Wasserman, who have £100m stars including John Stones, Federico Valverde and Ayeric Laporte, have an estimated total value of more than £1billion.
Jonathan Barnett’s ICM Stellar is next in terms of total value of clients, whilst Jorge Mendes and Mino Raiola also sit above the newly formed agency.
Raiola’s elite stable of talent is reflected by the fact his 77 clients are valued at £799,000,000 - more than £10m per player- in comparison to Mendes’ Gestifute at £6.36m and Barnett’s 673 players at ICM Stellar valued at £1.96m on average.
