Jorge Mendes wants to diversify his activities. The millions of euros raised in football and elsewhere no longer seem to be enough for him. Or does he just want to challenge himself? On January 2, his company Polaris announced an agreement with Corso Sports, which represents many cyclists. The stated goal: “optimize the business prospects of Portuguese athletes who work with Corso (João Almeida and Ruben Guerreiro)“. The hidden drawings? Not yet revealed. That’s what Marc Madiot is wary of, who takes a very negative view of the arrival of the Portuguese.
–
Why is he so scary? Cristiano Ronaldo’s agent, Jorge Mendes symbolizes the madness that has gripped the transfer market in recent years in football. More movements and higher amounts made it super rich. At the end of 2020, Forbes estimated his fortune at 85 million euros. “I don’t want to enter the football system, annoyed Marc Madiot at the microphone of RMC. What is the agent system in football? It’s having a portfolio of players and getting them moving as often as possible to go to the cash drawer as often as possible.”
–
Cycling
Mendes, CR7 agent, enters cycling
–
01/02/2021 At 7:14 PM
–
Jorge Mendes is scary
In cycling, the situation is quite different for agents. No or few transfers, we will come back to it, and therefore no percentage on the amount of it. It is on the salary that the agent takes a small percentage. What makes Madiot say that Mendes will not win “as much money in cycling as in football“. Even if transfers were to become the norm, the amounts would be incompatible with those of football.”With us, there is an extremely important element. We have fixed-term contracts and we respect the duration of the contract.“Thus, Romain Bardet left AG2R at the end of his lease to join Team DSM and Thibaut Pinot will not be free before 2023. What to give visibility to a brand.
–
“We respect an economy. I get ten euros, I spend ten euros, I don’t speculate on the five potentials that I would have on the potential resale of a runner“, further details the manager of Groupama-FDJ. The economy of cycling, more virtuous than that of football, is nonetheless fragile. Bringing the wolf into the sheepfold is taking the risk of deregulating some something that has worked so far. It is also taking the risk of seeing the big teams grab the best riders. Jumbo-Visma (Roglic, Dumoulin, Van Aert…) and Ineos (Bernal, Carapaz, Geoghegan Hart, Porte, A. Yates…) already stand out with the current system, what if a rider could ask to be transferred before the end of his contract to a more renowned team?
–
Bernal, Dumoulin, Hirschi and the others …
Make no mistake, and Marc Madiot undoubtedly knows it, transfers have already appeared in cycling. Egan Bernal thus left Androni Giocattoli for Sky against 300,000 euros (when he was only a very good promise) at the end of 2017. Others followed behind. Recently, Tom Dumoulin (end of 2019) and Marc Hirschi (beginning of 2021) broke their contract amicably with Sunweb (now Team DSM). If transfers were generalized, this kind of departure would be monaier and would logically benefit the richest. Cycling has not forgotten its virtuous system of honoring contracts, but some are finding ways to get around them. The worm may already be in the fruit and if Marc Madiot rises so sharply, it may be that he knows that Mendes could push the (bad) logic further.
–
Marc Hirschi
Credit: Getty Images
“What happens in football if a player does not play, the agent puts pressure on the coach and on the club, it is unbearable!, Madiot still enraged to finish. If I had a runner’s agent who came to piss me off every morning at the start because I didn’t give Pierre, Paul or Jacques a leadership role, the guy I would put him out! ” Cycling has so far been spared from this kind of practice. And he prefers to stay in a group that protects him. This sport, which is becoming international, still looks with suspicion on newcomers. There are many reasons to be concerned about Jorge Mendes.
–
Liège – Bastogne – Liège
Alaphilippe’s first objective: to ramp up to Liège-Bastogne-Liège
–
AN HOUR AGO
–
Cycling
Evenepoel postpones its return to competition
–
5 HOURS AGO
—
