Viktor Gyokeres' summer transfer to Sporting CP was facilitated by TransferRoom (Image: Getty)
Had Sporting CP wanted the Championship top scorer a decade ago, opening dialogue with the selling club might have been a tricky task. Back then, the Portuguese club could have expressed their interest via an agent, but direct contact between executives would have been a slow and potentially arduous process, allowing a Premier League club with stronger domestic connections to hijack the deal.
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It is why Viktor Gyokeres’s £17million transfer from Coventry to Sporting in the summer was a proud moment for Jonas Ankersen. In 2017, intrigued by what he describes as a “lack of transparency and credible information” in football’s transfer market, Ankersen created TransferRoom. The platform hoping to democratise and add transparency to transfer windows facilitated Gyokeres’s move.
Ankersen had spent the previous year meeting with club executives who repeated the same message: that there was too little direct communication between decision-makers. Accelerated by the overtly digital nature of communications during the COVID-19 pandemic, TransferRoom now has 700 clubs signed up to its platform via a subscription.
Seventeen of the Premier League’s 20 teams are active on TransferRoom. It was reported during the summer transfer window that West Ham had used the platform to advertise several positions in which they needed to strengthen, such is the esteem in which it is held by Europe’s biggest clubs. Mutual trust, a rare phenomenon in football’s transfer market which is awash with shadowy figures and vested interests, has rapidly been established.
“I could see that there was an enormous appetite for more direct club-to-club interaction when TransferRoom was introduced in 2017 as an offering exclusive to clubs. Clubs experienced early success - the first transfer was done after just a few weeks when Wolves sold [Jon Dadi] Bodvarsson to Reading for £3m. And they started to recommend it to others,” Ankersen tells Express Sport.
Jonas Ankersen created TransferRoom in 2017 to add 'transparency' to the transfer window (Image: TransferRoom)
“During the pandemic the growth really accelerated, and TransferRoom increasingly became an essential everyday tool, rather than an optional extra. The logistical challenges really emphasised to clubs on how valuable an online marketplace was.
“Suddenly, in-person meetings and scouting trips were impossible and the only way to keep the transfer market moving was to embrace the virtual world. Fast forward, over 700 clubs are using the platform.
“We see more but also bigger deals being facilitated with help from TransferRoom. This summer saw the biggest deal ever facilitated when Viktor Gyökeres went from Coventry City to Sporting Clube de Portugal for €20m (£17m).
“Our platform gave Sporting CP the opportunity to contact the selling club's decision makers directly and make their interest known in signing the player.”
The dynamics of recruitment have drastically evolved over the last decade. Ankersen points out that many established clubs scarcely believed in, let alone used, data when TransferRoom was created.
Transfers frequently happened through word-and-mouth. But now, the use of data is widespread in recruitment, with clubs crunching the numbers to establish which players fall into their respective philosophies.
Data has seen the likes of Brighton and Brentford compete with the Premier League’s established Big Six, some of the wealthiest clubs in world football. Striking a bargain for a new signing using unique data can see the club make major profits further down the line and help to expand that club’s resources.
An emphasis on data is at the core of TransferRoom’s approach. Their Expected Transfer Value model shows clubs what they should spend on a player, or what fee they should expect to receive for a star on the transfer list.
“Our xTV, a prediction of what a club should pay for a player, is coming really close to actual fees being paid, so we may actually be able to determine the fair price of a player based on algorithms in the very near future, which will make recruitment even more efficient,” Ankersen says.
“When I started TransferRoom, many clubs were not even into using or believing in data, but today clubs are much more data driven and embrace all opportunities to become more efficient. The growth of TransferRoom is a testimony to that.”
There is something on the platform for every stakeholder. Clubs can see which players are available and how they might fit into their team. Agents can establish which teams want to strengthen in certain positions. A new tool launched in November, CoachFinder, helps clubs locate the perfect head coach.
Clubs can see data about a transfer target on Transfer Room (Image: TransferRoom)
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Express Sport first came across TransferRoom last January while scouring the internet to learn whether midfielder Naouirou Ahamada qualified for a work permit. The platform’s Governing Body Endorsement calculator told us that he did, strengthening a tip-off and allowing us to correctly report that the Frenchman was set to sign for Crystal Palace from Stuttgart.
Ankersen continues: “As an example, The sporting director simply enters the club’s requirements into the system. For example, a right-sided defender who can also play in the centre and is strong in the air. The maximum transfer or loan fee, and maximum salary, can also be entered.
“TransferRoom members will be able to see these specifications and be free to pitch players they think meet the criteria. TransferRoom also gives automated player recommendations to each club, and each individual player profile on the platform is accompanied by a large amount of statistical information and tools to help clubs compare players.
“This has opened up new markets for clubs when it comes to buying and selling players internationally, giving them a competitive advantage over teams in other leagues.
“But what clubs have told us is that league-wide deals that give everyone access to TransferRoom also make the domestic transfer market more efficient and transparent. The ability to connect directly with fellow decision-makers, both at home and overseas, is a game-changer.”
TransferRoom host summits for clubs wanting to network with their counterparts (Image: TransferRoom)
TransferRoom experienced a 30 per cent rise in deals taking place via their platform in the summer of 2023 compared to 12 months prior. The average cost of those deals increased by 26 per cent as bigger clubs took a liking to the platform.
Ankersen expects TransferRoom to significantly add to the 4,000 transactions aided by his platform, which fans who play the Football Manager computer simulator game will have noticed is now used for completing deals in the virtual world. “Both parties saw an opportunity to elevate the authenticity and realism of transfer deals in the game,” Ankersen says of that arrangement.
TransferRoom is not hosted entirely online. Summits are arranged all over the world, with executives flocking from every corner of the globe to network with their counterparts. Ankersen coined an exercise akin to speed dating where individuals have 15 minutes to strike up a relationship.
“Our in-person, speed-dating style events have grown massively in popularity and are bigger than ever. With hundreds of clubs attending, it is extremely efficient and within two days you can meet so many clubs.
TransferRoom's summits involve a 15-minute speed date between club executives (Image: TransferRoom)
“Even in a time of Zoom meetings, there will always be a place for sitting opposite someone, looking into their eyes, and getting transfer business done directly. The conversation often starts here and is continued on our platform. Clubs and agents tell us they are saving time, money, and hassle.”
There may be nobody more thankful for TransferRoom in 2024 than Sporting. Gyokeres’s 17 goals in 20 appearances since signing from Coventry have made him one of the best signings of the summer transfer window and his form has alerted Europe’s elite.
Sporting insist that he will not be sold for less than his £87m release clause. Big-spending Chelsea have been credited with an interest in their search for a prolific centre-forward. Without TransferRoom, Sporting might not have been able to get ahead of the competition for the Swede last summer, and will one day reap the benefits with a huge profit.