Soccer superagent Ali Barat is taking an unconventional approach. Will it be effective?

TURIN, Italy — Where was Ali? No one had any idea. Ali Barat, the most sought-after soccer agent globally, was expected at the Museo Nazionale dell’Automobile by 5:30 p.m. However, it was past 6, and he was nowhere to be found.

Later that evening in December, Paris Saint-Germain’s Désiré Doué would receive the 2025 Golden Boy award, recognizing him as the top young player in the sport. As is customary at award ceremonies, a series of other honors were presented beforehand, including Best Agent, which Barat would claim for the second time in three years.

As is typical, Barat was staying at a more upscale hotel than his peers at Epic, the agency he established and manages, which meant he was arriving at the event independently. It should have been straightforward — a driver had been arranged — but now it was 6:15. Where could he be? And why was he not responding to messages? Ali was likely on a call negotiating a deal, Yann Guerin, who oversees Epic’s media, suggested. “He’ll be here.”

Then, almost as if on cue, Barat emerged over Guerin’s shoulder, walking through the glass doors. He donned a charcoal tuxedo without a tie and a gold watch adorned with dials and knobs that could easily belong to a James Bond antagonist. He appeared as though he could run a record label, and within moments, Barat had positioned himself between two Sky Sports presenters covering the event, where he shared details about the remarkable summer of transfers that earned him the accolade. He then participated in a group interview with print journalists, followed by quick one-on-one sessions. Guerin observed with approval.

Guerin joined Epic in January after spending 11 years at PSG. He was brought on, as he describes it, to manage Epic’s public relations as if the agency were a major international club. In practice, this has involved promoting its transfers — and the individuals behind them — to the extent that Barat has become one of the most recognized agents worldwide.

– Schoenfeld: How Sunderland’s glorious Premier League return revived a whole city
– Marcotti: Why Liverpool’s January transfer window makes no sense
– O’Hanlon: Premier League desperation rankings: Judging all 20 teams by transfer window panic

To be fair, there have been numerous transfers to promote — 15 last summer alone, an astonishing figure for a small independent agency. These included unexpected deals, such as center back Dean Huijsen’s transfer to Real Madrid, as well as several prolonged sagas, notably striker Nicolas Jackson’s transition from Chelsea to Bayern Munich and Tottenham’s interest in playmaker Xavi Simons, which dominated soccer Instagram for weeks. Each was accompanied by an enthusiastic press release from Guerin, featuring headlines like “Ali Barat redefines the game again” or “Ali Barat delivers another masterclass.”

Fewer than 15 minutes after the transfer window closed with the Jackson signing, Epic released a self-congratulatory statement. “Where others react, he builds,” it stated regarding Barat. “Where others stall, he delivers.”

It is crucial to note that other agents do not promote themselves in this manner. The few whose names are well-known, such as Jorge Mendes and the late Mino Raiola, typically refrain from self-promotion. Even their client lists are often kept confidential. (For instance, the Wasserman agency website requires a password to access player names.)

This approach does not suit Barat. “Ali is building his brand,” explains Tiago Pinto, the Bournemouth sporting director, who signed Barat’s first client, Tomás Araújo, in 2021 while he was director of professional football at Benfica. “You can see all the hype he generates for these awards.”

For Barat, the visibility aids him in securing awards, and winning these awards attracts clients. Players’ families are approached by “thousands of agents,” he notes. “They are inundated. So how can you distinguish yourself from the others? The families see that I have won the award and think, ‘OK, he’s the best, let me listen to him. He’s different from the thousand other agents who are reaching out to me.’

“I believe he’s correct in his assessment,” says an executive from a North American-based company that represents hundreds of international players. “You’ve got the larger agencies that have a model that clearly works for them, promoting their clients while remaining behind the scenes. I suppose he feels the need to showcase what he’s doing to remain competitive.”

Initially, those dramatic emails seemed excessive. Yet, as the deals piled up, I began to consider whether this might not just be a public relations strategy but a genuine phenomenon. When I asked Guerin, he smiled. “In a few years,” he said, “he’ll have all the best players.”

On stage, a woman and a man alternated between Italian and English as they presented the awards. When Barat won Best Agent in 2023, primarily for facilitating Moisés Caicedo’s transfer to Chelsea from Brighton and Jackson’s move to Chelsea from Villarreal, he became the youngest recipient ever at 43. Mendes, who continues to be soccer’s leading agent for stars — his company, Gestifute, represents Lamine Yamal, Jose Mourinho, and, until recently, Cristiano Ronaldo — won in 2024.

Upon hearing his name this time, Barat eagerly ascended the steps to accept the trophy from the presenters. His face brightened with a wide smile.

“I missed you guys,” he remarked. “Two years was too long.”

UNTIL 2021, BARAT had never completed a transfer. Beginning in the early 2010s, he worked as an intermediary, assisting agents in connecting players with clubs. “Lower-level players, signing in leagues like Bulgaria,” he recalls. His largest commission was €20,000. Prior to that, he was involved in exporting bauxite and other minerals from South America. “I literally didn’t know what a football agent was,” he states. “I was unaware that it existed as a profession because my world was entirely different.”

The son of a diplomat whose family fled Iran at the onset of the 1980s due to the war with Iraq, Barat was just 2 years old when his family arrived in England. He grew up in South London as a Chelsea fan. He would spend countless hours engrossed in the popular video game Championship Manager, the precursor to Football Manager. “I was always trading players,” he explains. “I was building my club. I was obsessed with every single player around the globe.”

Eventually, soccer faded into the background. Barat became an international businessman and settled in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where he formed a close friendship with a cousin of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who oversees the entity that owns City Football Group. He spent time with Roberto Mancini, then the Manchester City manager. Eventually, he became involved in the soccer business as a hobby, helping to broker Edin Dzeko’s 2015 transfer to Roma.

Barat enjoyed that soccer had re-entered his life, but he did not view it as a potential career. “It was only after I realized the fees involved and how much money agents earned that I thought, ‘I can do that,'” he states.

He felt confident because he has always been self-assured, and because, in his view, most agents did not appear particularly skilled at their jobs. The family members who represented many players, perhaps with assistance from a local attorney, lacked the expertise or connections to do much more than accept the highest offer. The larger firms often employed standard strategies to market their players’ services.

Barat understood how to sell commodities. And what were soccer players, according to Barat, but highly specialized and valued commodities? Thus, he laid the groundwork: gathering phone numbers, cultivating relationships, and gaining insight into the sport’s inner workings. By 2020, he asserts, “I really knew in depth how to deal with clubs. What they were looking for, what they needed, how to approach them.”

Barat launched Epic that January, dedicating the remainder of that pandemic year to researching players to target. This involved assessing statistics, but also delving deeper. “I can be a stalker on Instagram,” he admits. “You can learn so much about players from the stories they post, and so on. Or sitting in the stands analyzing their family and their entourage.”

Were they on good terms with parents and siblings? Did it seem like they could learn a foreign language? “For me, those factors are even more crucial than the data,” he states. “Because players can be the best talents in the world, but if the environment surrounding them is not right, we’ve often observed that it doesn’t work out.”

In January 2021, he signed Araújo. “He was new,” Araújo, who was 19 and concluding his youth career at Benfica’s academy, recalls of Barat. “But when you sat down with this guy, you could tell that he was different. After that first impression he made, it was impossible to say no.”

It would have been more profitable to extract Araújo from Benfica and market him across Europe. “We were very, very strict with the contracts at Benfica,” Pinto explains. “There’s not much room for players or agents to negotiate money.” Instead, Barat advised Araújo to remain where he felt comfortable and could develop.

The earnings Barat made from that initial signing were minimal, but he was playing the long game, confident that his investment would yield a significant transfer five or six years later. The goodwill he generated with Pinto would also pay off. “My first impression of Ali was very positive,” Pinto states. “He was more focused on the player’s development than the money or the contract. In that moment, we established the relationship.”

Five years later, Araújo has emerged as one of Europe’s most sought-after young defenders. And that novice to whom he entrusted his career has been recognized as the world’s Best Agent, at least according to Tuttosport. “When you work with an agent of this caliber at 22, it boosts your ego, to be honest,” he enthuses.

Whether this will lead to another of Barat’s major transfers will become evident this summer. Five years from signing that first deal is right about now. If it does, both Barat’s gamble and Araújo’s will have been validated.

THE MORNING AFTER the awards ceremony, a Mercedes arrived at the Grand Hotel Sitea, where Barat was staying. Barat stood by as the driver loaded his luggage: a hard-sided suitcase the size of a steamer trunk, and three smaller but still substantial bags. Earlier this year, Barat relocated from France to Dubai, but it hardly matters where he resides. He is frequently away for weeks, traveling from Asia to Europe to Africa, and because his curated appearance is part of his brand, he requires a substantial wardrobe.

Epic’s challenge is to remain small enough to distinguish itself from the corporate agencies that possess more funds and resources, yet substantial enough to replicate last summer’s successes year after year. Winning the Best Agent award again in 2026, Barat assured me, was “definitely the goal.” However, since most of his top players recently changed clubs, they are unlikely to be prepared to move again. “Full credit to the guy, he’s emerged on the scene, he’s executed some significant deals,” Patrick McCabe, who oversees the U.S. office for London-based Stellar, later remarked. “But if you don’t have a lot of clients, how do you continue to make deals?”

The answer is: Barat needs some new clients. Foremost among them is Denzel Dumfries, the Inter Milan right back. I encountered Dumfries’ father, Boris, at the Golden Boy ceremony; he was there at Barat’s invitation. He mentioned that his son had parted ways with Jorge Mendes after being impressed by Barat’s presentation. “What we appreciate is that he plans the steps he wants to take and then he sticks to them,” Boris stated. To solidify the relationships, Barat hoped to meet Dumfries in Milan after leaving Turin.

Before that, Barat told me with evident pride, he was scheduled to meet with Fabrizio Romano, whose social media accounts boast over 100 million followers. Romano had only ever conducted one sit-down interview for his YouTube channel, with Lionel Messi. Barat, not Ronaldo or another superstar, would be the second.

Such an interview would not have been possible without last summer’s transfers. Regardless of opinions about Barat — and the industry’s views are mixed — it was a series of successes as remarkable as Arsenal’s undefeated season, the soccer agent’s equivalent of José Mourinho’s Porto team winning the Champions League in 2004.

His series of deals began before the 2024-25 season had even concluded, with Bournemouth’s Huijsen. The previous year, Barat had facilitated Huijsen’s transfer from Juventus to Pinto, his old friend from the Araújo signing, who had recently transitioned from AS Roma to Bournemouth. The south coast of England seemed an unlikely destination for a rising talent who had most recently played for one of Italy’s largest clubs. However, Barat had his reasons. For one, he knew Pinto would not obstruct Huijsen’s future move.

“It could have been one year or two years,” Pinto reflects now. “But the conclusion of the story would always have been the same because Dean is a very special player.”

When Huijsen joined Bournemouth, Barat and Pinto agreed on a €50 million release clause, and after his standout 2024-25 season, several clubs were prepared to meet it. One suitable option was Liverpool, but they hesitated for what Barat claims were the most trivial of reasons: Huijsen wore his socks drooping toward his ankles, which conveyed a lack of attention to detail. “They felt that was not the right attitude for the type of player they desired,” Barat explains.

It became Barat’s responsibility to convey who, precisely, his player was — the first to arrive at practice, the last to leave, that sort of thing. Eventually, he persuaded Liverpool that Huijsen’s abilities surpassed any sartorial indiscretions, but before Liverpool made an offer, Xabi Alonso, who was about to be appointed at Real Madrid, contacted Bournemouth inquiring about Huijsen. The deal was finalized in a day. It was mid-May, before the window had even opened — or, indeed, before Alonso had been officially hired.

That was the first transfer. The next significant one was Noni Madueke: for months, Nico Jackson had been promoting his Chelsea teammate to Barat. “Noni’s incredible in training,” he informed Barat. “He’s just not getting his chance.” Madueke was represented by his father at the time, so once the transfer window opened, Barat traveled to London to pitch him. Barat believed that Arsenal had a team capable of winning the Premier League, except they lacked a creative winger who could dribble and shoot. In essence, they needed Madueke.

“His father wasn’t 100% convinced,” Barat concedes, “but he was open to having a conversation.” Madueke was participating in the Club World Cup, a challenging situation for a transfer. “But I recognized the opportunity and acted swiftly,” Barat states.

Soon it was arranged — Madueke joined Arsenal on July 19, just six days after Chelsea triumphed in the Club World Cup against Paris Saint-Germain — and the necessary email blast was sent by Guerin. By that point, Jackson’s own transfer saga was already underway.

Barat had a history with Jackson that extended further back than with any other top player. In 2019, the forward was playing in Senegal and Gambia as a midfielder when Diomansy Kamara — the former Portsmouth, West Brom, and Fulham goal scorer — sent Barat a 20-second clip. “I could see his pace, his power, his technical ability,” Barat recalls. “I was captivated by this 20-second video. So I said to Dio, ‘Where are you? I’m coming.’

In 2021, Barat placed Jackson at Villarreal, where he transitioned to a striker, leading to a deal with Chelsea in June 2023. At the start of last summer, Bayern Munich expressed interest, and an agreement was reached. However, when Chelsea was unable to secure a replacement, they decided Jackson had to remain.

Barat could have advised Jackson, who is still only 24, to wait, but he understood Jackson was eager to move. Barat urged Chelsea to continue searching — but he also had to prevent Bayern from fulfilling their needs with someone else. “That was the conversation on an hourly basis,” Barat explains. “‘Ali, are you sure? Are you sure?’ I had to keep them on the hook.” His relationship with Bayern was precarious. “And I was assuring them, I was giving my word. ‘Chelsea will get a replacement. I know they will.’

How did Barat know this? Well, he had information. Marc Guiu, whose contract was owned by Chelsea, was on loan at Sunderland and hardly playing, featuring in just two games during the 2024-25 season. Barat had sources at Sunderland informing him Guiu would be recalled, and felt confident that, at worst, Jackson’s replacement was already on Chelsea’s payroll, hidden in plain sight. “I couldn’t disclose to Bayern who it was, but I knew who it was,” he states. “That gave me the confidence to say, ‘Just be patient. It will happen.’

And so it did, 10 minutes before the summer deadline. Bayern acquired their striker. Chelsea received a loan fee of over €16 million, about half of what Jackson had cost Chelsea in transfer fees two years earlier. And Barat instinctively knew that the high-profile, last-minute drama had crafted a compelling conclusion for what had already been an exceptional summer.

He would be Best Agent again.

IN THE COMING WEEKS, Barat will unveil the “Epic 22.” A collection of players who will serve as the cornerstones of his client base, it will distinguish him from any agents attempting to imitate him. The concept is an all-star XI, featuring a player at each position on the field — or, more accurately, two XIs. Because if someone requests a left back, and his only one has just signed elsewhere, Barat wants to have another option to offer.

What he’s proposing is exclusivity, a service the larger agencies cannot provide. “When you’ve got a thousand players, and Chelsea asks you for a striker and you’ve got 10 strikers to present, who gets priority?” Barat questions. “I don’t believe the top player wants their agent