AS a footballer, Dean Horn’s career highlight came on the hallowed turf at Huddersfield’s Galpharm Stadium.
Playing for Shepley FC in the Barlow Cup final, he scored the winning goal in the last minute of extra time to clinch the title with a 2-1 victory against New Mill in 2006.
Now the self-confessed football-crazy 35-year-old is making a name for himself as a football agent – with the aims of representing high-profile professional footballers and helping to discover and nurture the Wayne Rooneys and David Beckhams of the future.
Dean had 13 years experience in retail and sales management before taking the advice of a friend and seeking a new career.
He says: I still play for Shepley, where I am player-coach, but I realised I wasn’t good enough to be a professional footballer, so I decided to get involved in the game in a different way.
“I decided to get myself an education, so I studied business law at Huddersfield University, where they were so helpful in guiding me. Then, I studied to be a barrister and went to bar school. I was called to the bar in 2008 at Lincoln’s Inn.”
Dean sat the FA football agent exam in March last year and in April became a players’ agent licensed by the Football Association with full professional indemnity insurance.
Now he works with clubs, football scouts and coaches to seek out promising young players and represent them in contract negotiations with prospective clubs – as well as helping them in other areas of their life such as life coaching, sponsorship, sports psychology and financial management.
Says Dean: “Being a football agent is a lot like any business, but it is completely ‘contact-based’. You pick up the phone and make lots of calls.”
Dean receives footage of players from coaches and scouts and watches games himself – focusing on non-league clubs and international lower league sides.
“I receive 150 emails a week about players I’m being asked to look at – but maybe only five of them will be worth going to watch,” says Dean. “I compile players’ CVs with the information clubs need –how many goals they score, how many appearances and how many ‘assists’.
“It is a long week’s work for potentially no or little reward.”
However, less than a year into his new career, Dean now has 10 players on the books – and is hoping for huge things from his star signing, Egyptian international Hany Said, who has attracted interest from a number of English clubs after impressing during the recent England v Egypt game.
In this case, Dean’s vital contact was UEFA coach and former Egyptian international Tarek Hassan, who knew most of the current Egyptian side.
“He suggested we join up and talk to some of the players,” says Dean. “We arranged a meeting while they were in London.”
The end result was agreeing a two-year representative contract with centre-half Hany Said, who has more than 50 caps for his country.
“I was never going to get such an opportunity,” says Dean. “I believe I earned that opportunity with the work I put in.”
Dean realises that football agents are not held in high esteem by supporters or club chairmen, but insists: “There is room in the game for an ethical agent, who does what is right for the player.
“About 30% of agents are ex-players, who know footballers and have contacts, but whose business knowledge may leave a lot to be desired. About 1% of agents are what you might call ‘wide boys’ who are into self-promotion, but don’t have the contacts or the qualifications.
“Then there are people like me, who love the game, play the game and understand the game, but also have a business head on their shoulders.”
Dean certainly knows what to look for in a player – and it’s not just about ability.
“My role models are players like Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, who demonstrate loyalty to their club, hard work and commitment,” he says. “A lot of players have become mercenaries – that’s why you get more loan deals and more short-term contracts because clubs don’t trust them to stay.
“Apart from the Ronaldos of this world, footballers are very similar in terms of quality and ability. What it comes down to is how much commitment and dedication do they show? Do they look after themselves mentally and physically.
“As an agent researching players of the right calibre, I know that it doesn’t matter to the manager whether or not their marriage is in difficulties or what messages they are caught texting – it’s the ability to step over the white line and do the job on the football field week in and week out that counts..”
Says Dean: “The secret of researching a player is to look at the footballer rather than the stats. What is he doing when the team are 3-0 down? Is he digging in and still making the tackles? If he’s out of the team, is he still working hard in training to get back in?”
Dean has little time for players who squander their opportunities. “Footballers at most levels of the game are earning enough money to have a nice living out of the game,” he says.
“As someone who had the desire to play the game myself, I find it frustrating when a player cannot commit to that period of their lives – 12 to 15 years in most cases – and give it a real go.”
As a younger man, Dean had the opportunity to train with Town’s apprentices as one of the finalists in a Search for a Star competition run by the club. He got down to the last five.
That experience also impressed on him the need for young players to get qualifications such as GCSEs and A-levels to help them pursue other careers if they fail to realise their footballing dream.
Dean works with Brook House Academy in Leicestershire – a sort of boarding school for footballers where students take academic lessons in the mornings and get coached in football during the afternoons.
He also provides life coaching for people outside football to help their self-development or careers.
“The recession has provided some people with an opportunity,” says Dean. “People who are out of work – made redundant from jobs they didn’t want to be in – can turn things around, look at what they really want to do as their dream job and go for it.”
