Ehsen Shah: The Evolution Of Athlete Management
In the past few years, Raheem Sterling has spoken out about racism, Jordan Henderson has led tributes to the NHS, and Marcus Rashford has headed up campaigns to ensure school meals remain free. These days, impressionable and influential footballers have the license to express their political and societal views. They have a voice.
Last week, London-based athlete management agency B-Engaged signed up two of the Premier League’s brightest young stars – Reece James and William Saliba. We caught up with its CEO – Ehsen Shah – to find out elite athlete management is changing and why the evolution of footballers off the pitch is changing the rules…
Hi Ehsen, can you tell us a bit about your career to date?
Following graduation, I quickly identified the sports industry as my desired career path, there was a gap with the marketing of athletes here in Europe which didn’t exist to level it did in the States. I launched a business with 2 other individuals who had a background in football and vastly more business experience than myself. However, after 18-months we closed the business down due to several reasons.
At the time I was 23 without any financial commitments, my friends convinced me to launch B-Engaged. Since the first day the ambition has always been the same, to change the way athletes were perceived in the UK and help brands find more engaging methods of partnering with athletes.
You have recently signed up two of the brightest young stars in the Premier League – Reece James and William Saliba. How will you be supporting them?
We’ll be working with Reece and William on all off-field topics, this covers everything from marketing, media, charity, and commercial initiatives. All of our clients have hectic football schedules with domestic, European and International football, our business covers all the requirements of a modern-day athlete, allowing them to concentrate fully on on-field business knowing their off-field matters are taken care of.
This includes, the management of their media requests, strategy building for their brand today and in the future, commercial partnership deliverables and assisting them on their social media content.
James and Saliba join the likes of Bellerin, Havertz and Gnabry on your roster. What are the biggest challenges you face at the top level of athlete management?
There are many moving components in management of athletes, such as performance levels on field, being able to judge the mood/environment around the athlete, this would be the number 1 challenge. If you’re unable to temperature check the athletes mindset, you’ll be communicating vital information to a human being on the other end of the conversation who is not in the right mindset to process the information, this can lead to many implications which could be detrimental to the athlete and stakeholders involved.
There’s been many occasions where I would need to instigate a softer conversation to gauge the situation before asking or delivering important information. If I feel the athlete is not in the best mind frame, I will push the conversation to another time where the athlete is better placed to hear the information and deliver on the tasks at hand.
“Just as you see younger generations in wider society having a voice and desire to make a change in the world which we live in, this is also seen in sport.”
EHSEN SHAH
How have you noticed athlete management in football change over the past decade?
Definitely. When I first stepped into the sports industry in 2014, many of the world’s largest agencies had one commercial contact point with next to no marketing individuals within the business. During my first year of running B-Engaged in 2016 I was told “social media will die out, it has no place in football” by a leading sports agent. Fast forward 6-years every sports agency now presents themselves as a 360-athlete management firm, with capabilities to deliver on and off field.
The change has been driven by the younger generation of athletes coming through who demand their management teams be able to deliver for them on-field and help develop the foundations for their platform off the field.
How important is a player’s personal brand in the modern game? And how do clubs feel about that?
Giving a blanket answer to this question is very hard, the importance of a brand is very much dependent on the individual. Some athletes are passionate about many things, their sport, community, social causes, fashion, gaming etc. The brand is built around them as a human. The modern era has allowed for athletes to build brands in many ways, whether that’s the variety of social media platforms or emerging media outlets. Today there are a variety options available in the modern game which were not previously, allowing athletes to build a brand outside of their main job (being an athlete).
Majority of clubs are very aware of the benefits a player’s brand can bring to them, whether that is commercial value or helping communicate club initiatives. The first club we worked with very closely was Arsenal. Their openness and desire to help build players profiles has been one of the best I have come across in the industry, with an open collaborative approach with content, interviews and aligning the athlete with campaigns which tie together brand values.
However, on the flip side, there are still a few clubs who find it difficult to open their doors and allow third party organisations or people work with players on marketing / media topics. This may change in the coming years as more players appoint their own teams to help build their profiles.
Football stars are becoming much more vocal on societal and political issues. The likes of Marcus Rashford and Jordan Henderson have been voices off the pitch over the past few years. How has this happened and how does a player’s management deal with this?
Just as you see younger generations in wider society having a voice and desire to make a change in the world which we live in, this is also seen in sport. Some athletes are no longer afraid to keep their opinions to themselves and wish to help make a change using the platforms.
As a player’s management team, we’re there to help amplify their voice and opinion, carefully and with consideration of the reaction the world will have to this opinion. In most cases the messaging the player would like to publish to the world is published through their own social media channels, it’s our job to act as an insurance policy.
Before the messaging is published, we will run fact checking to ensure where the information is gathered from is genuine and will not misinform any of their followers. In some instances, we will arrange media interviews with relevant outlets, allowing their voice to be heard with audiences who may not know who they are, or follow them on social media.
Our job is not to formulate or communicate anything which the player does not write themselves. It’s simply to protect and help amplify their profile.
B-Engaged also represent Lionesses Ella Toone and Nikita Parris. After their incredible summer saw a significant boost in the interest in women’s football, how has this impacted your clients directly?
The impact for the women’s game and players has been huge. Prior to the tournament there were a small number of media platforms (Versus, Seasonzine, Soccer Bible) and brands operating in the sector, notably they would be tournament partners who required individual talent support for their campaigns (VISA, Pepsi, Pandora etc.).
However, since the EURO’s victory, the number of brands and media now interested in the players and Women’s game has exploded. This interest requires a lot of vetting to understand where the value and long-term benefits are, I say this because we need to be extremely careful of those who are entering into partnerships to truly make a change and provide value to the game, or those who are simply using it as a short-term marketing play to benefit from Ella or Nikita’s success.
Where do you see women’s football going from here? Can its growth continue post-EUROs?
As mentioned before, with the right partners who truly have the desire to make a positive impact in the game, whether that is funding into grassroots or campaigns to help younger generations overcome the narrative or obstacles placed in front of them, we can build a sustainable level of growth for the women’s game for the future.
This is not only on-pitch. We need greater diversity in the game across media, marketing, commercial, athlete representation, coaches, back-room staff, technical teams and board level, this list goes on. The impact of the success on the pitch should inspire younger women to want to have a career in sport and help provide better pathways from education to careers.
The Premier League and WSL seasons are both underway. Who are you backing to win the trophies come the end of the season?
This season the competition in WSL is strong, with Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City and Manchester United all building strong squads for the future. The squad Arsenal have built I would have to back them to win the WSL.
As for the Premier League I can’t see past Man City picking up the title again, they will have a striker with a 4-week break primed and ready to attack tired defences…
