Mario Eggimann played for Hannover 96 and Switzerland. In 17 years of professional football, his own ups and downs, as well as tragedies such as Robert Enke’s suicide, made him think. As a “people advisor,” he shares his experiences with players on their career paths.
The industry doesn’t have the best reputation. Player agents in football – especially the “black sheep” of the business – are often seen as rip-offs who dictate contracts and transfers from which they earn a lot. Bayern Munich’s Uli Hoeneß once called them “money-hungry piranhas” who are primarily interested in their own advantage. He probably didn’t mean Eggimann.
The former professional soccer player from Hannover 96 and Swiss national player sees himself with his agency SportsTransfer as a slightly different player agent – one who focuses on people, their careers, but also their problems and crises. Players who are at the beginning of their career or have reached a point where they can no longer progress. A dream job!?
“It certainly wasn’t my dream job at first.”
— Game advisor Mario Eggimann
“At some point I was asked: ‘You know your way around this business – can’t you help me?'” That’s how it started, the 42-year-old tells NDR. “It certainly wasn’t my dream job at first.” After 17 years in professional football, he actually just wanted to get out of an environment that, God knows, wasn’t just fun for him.
As a 17-year-old, the defender made his debut for FC Aarau in the Swiss Super League, was captain of Karlsruher SC during their promotion to the Bundesliga in 2007, played five years for Hannover 96 and ten times for the Swiss national team, with whom he took part in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa .
Conclusion at Union “with a good feeling”
Unforgettable moments – but the end of his career at Union Berlin, forced by a persistent injury, was bitter. Although at the time he said almost defiantly: “I’m quitting with a good feeling.” He played his last professional game with the “Eiserne” from Köpenick as a substitute on December 19, 2014 in Düsseldorf (0-1).
He couldn’t go back to a profession he had learned, nor did he want to. He has never regretted the fact that he gave up a commercial apprenticeship with his parents’ blessing. “For those who learned another profession before football, it is usually impossible to continue there,” the Swiss told the “Aargauer Zeitung”. “No one is waiting for you to come back.”
Trauma therapy helps after Enke’s suicide
So the father, who lives with his wife and two children in Sindelfingen, decided to further his education and took courses in conversation and trauma therapy. He had already sought help as a player – after the suicide of his teammate Robert Enke: “It was a very bad phase in which we at Hannover 96 worked a lot with psychologists.” There was no other way to cope with the unfathomable: the death of a teammate with whom he had spoken after training the day before.
“Robert was sick, seriously ill,” he says, describing in the NDR sports club how difficult it was to feel himself again afterwards. Only then did he realize that he wasn’t feeling well himself. “I started working on it for myself.”
It took a lot of strength; it wasn’t until a year and a half later that he found help from a trauma therapist. His luck! Three or four weeks later he kicked again and played 50 games for the “Reds” within a year. “That’s when I realized: There’s something there that’s good for me.” An experience that changed his life.
Accompany, support and advise
He also played with Markus Miller at KSC and in Hanover. The goalkeeper has come out to be depressed. “Others hide their illness behind a mask,” says Eggimann. Experiences that will benefit him as a consultant. Today he quickly recognizes what’s going on and how he can help his talents: “Our focus is on individual coaching and supporting each individual to ensure sustainable success.”
His motto: take time, empathize and get involved with the personal situation, the crises and problems of the “protégés”, understand them and work together to find solutions. “The mental area is particularly important for performance,” says Eggimann, who has more female than male clients. And he can also bring in his experience as a professional footballer. “Perhaps the only one in his industry,” as he speculates.
Anyone can call themselves a player agent
A counter-proposal to his colleagues, who are often focused on maximizing profits and who collected around 200 million euros from Bundesliga clubs last season alone. However, the cliché of agents with dollar signs in their eyes applies far more to the global protagonists. The whistleblowers from the disclosure platform “Football Leaks” have proven that the brokers of Neymar’s transfer from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain pocketed the equivalent of almost 27 million euros in 2017.
The world football association FIFA wants to counteract the proliferation of the profession, which requires neither training nor any certificates, with stricter regulations. In the area of the German Football Association (DFB), for example, registration with the association as well as a police certificate and a fee of 500 euros per transfer period are sufficient to be able to work as a player agent.
St. Pauli bans advisors from youth football
Is it any wonder that consultants are already vying for young talent who could one day bring in a big profit? Second division club FC St. Pauli has therefore recently positioned itself “against the capitalization of youth football” and will in future only hold commitment and contract discussions for underage talent with the player himself or his immediate environment.
No problem for Eggimann, who believes that protecting young athletes is the right thing to do: “I can expect a 16-year-old to have such conversations on his own. Contracts are not signed immediately.”
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Sports club | Oct 8, 2023 | 10:50 p.m
