THE DEAL: Inside the World of a Super-Agent by Jon Smith publishes this Thursday

800,000 football fans watch their professional team play live in the UK each week and TV pulls in audiences of around 600 million. Despite these phenomenal figures, the complex money-making scene behind sport is one of its biggest mysteries. The Deal is a unique and fascinating insight into the business of sports management through the eyes of Jon Smith, the man credited with creating the role of the football agent.

Football analysis has grown at the same exponential rate as the sport’s popularity and yet one of its most intrinsic elements remains tantalisingly opaque: the role of ‘agent’. The Deal is a unique and fascinating perspective into the business of sports management through the eyes of ‘Mr Football’, ‘super-agent’, Jon Smith. Jon was the man responsible for bringing the Premier League to the TV screens of one-fifth of the world’s population across 180 different countries. He created the initial concept of ‘Team England’, introduced product placement to football to make it the booming commercial success it is today and brokered some of the biggest deals of the era for players such as Diego Maradona, Gary Pallister and Andrey Arshavin (with just 8 seconds of the transfer window left).

Jon will give unprecedented insight into this world, showing what goes on as players and big money change hands.  Documented through his personal rollercoaster of high-flying success to near bankruptcy, the book’s over-arching narrative will offer an inspiring personal journey as well as insider knowledge of brokering deals at a high level and under extreme pressure.

Pre-order your copy here.