In the days when the Internet didn’t exist, when everyone was in less of a hurry, job ads were one of the most searched sections of newspapers. Knowing where to go to send a resume shortened time and increased the chances of finding a job. Football, like so many other things, lived apart from that reality. Until Football job came to remedy it.
«We have been in the market for 13 years. It was created by Valentín Botella thinking about eliminate a little those contacts that you need to get a job in a club What we do, or try to do, is sit everyone at the table, eliminating networking, eliminating that networking that people need to get to a club,” he explains during one of the breaks at the World Football Summit. Juan Andrés Villamilthe head of the company’s international department.
«It is about having offers for any role in the world of football.. Footballers, coaches, doctors, psychologists, journalists, marketing people. Everyone has a place at Futboljobs. We are in more than 130 countries, we work in seven languages. And we have a lot of clubs with which we have a direct relationship, that ask us to communicate offers, to which we help them find professionals. Not only footballers, but many other types,” he adds.
Vicente Botella, the creator of the company, knew what he was getting into. His father was president of Hércules for several years and knew the difficulties clubs faced in finding certain profiles.
Futboljobs is a platform to which Anyone related to football who wants to work in a club can subscribe. Once inside, you can “apply” to the job offers that are published. Thanks to it, even a coach who signs up for an offer to lead an African team can end up being the coach of that country. Something they have already experienced at Futboljobs.
«We are not agents,” explains Villamil, who participated in one of the panels at the World Football Summit, where Futboljobs also had a stand, to explain his experience. «It is not our intention to be either. For a footballer who believes he has the conditions, we guide him through the process of how to do not only the subscription, but also to have an attractive profile, to put his Transfermarkt [página web que recoge estadísticas y valor de mercado de los futbolistas]that the resume is good. If they need that type of advice, we give it without any problem, they should play the video, and the video should also be easy to watch, because the clubs or agents receive a lot of eight-minute videos that in the end they will not see,” says Villamil.
Soccerjobs works from Orihuela, where it is basedfor the world and for any type of club. «We have relations, although we do not publish direct offers, unless they specifically ask us to, with First Division clubs as well, but The majority on the platform are clubs that are in third, fourth, not only from Spain, but from all over the world.. That is what nourishes the platform the most,” explains Juan Andrés Villamil, who works at the company’s headquarters in Madrid.
Its income comes mainly from subscriptions to the platform. In addition, Futboljobs is responsible for promoting friendly matches to give visibility to footballers registered in a type of camps they call «tryouts», «They last one or two weeks. We invite sports directors, coaches, agents to come and see the footballers during that time. They pay a fee, they train and we organize friendly matches,” he adds.
The age range of the footballers they work with is wide, but the clubs’ preferences are marked by the Transfermarkt border. «If the footballer does not have Transfermarkt, clubs normally prefer players between 18 and 24 years old. If you have Transfermarkt, you have more or less a route, they are less interested depending on the objective and depending on the division in which they play. We have had footballers over 30 years old who have had a club through Futboljobs precisely for that reason. They already have a journey, it is a club that needs an experienced player and they get their attention and they take him,” says Juan Andrés Villamil. That is to say, if a more or less veteran player does not appear in the statistics on that website, the clubs understand that his career is not significant enough to pay attention to him. «They still look at him. Maybe he is a footballer who has not given the level for the First Division, but in the Third Division he can break it,” explains Villamil.
That’s what videos are for. «You find everything. Those who say they are Messi, that they play like Ronaldo or that they run like Usain Bolt. That’s why it’s better that they see them and that the clubs know who they’re talking to.”
Worth a look
