He takes the money and disappears. They say a Slovak football agent has scammed players from eight different countries.

You have a 17-year-old son, a promising football player. Suddenly, you're contacted by someone you've never heard of before. He claims to be a football agent and says he can arrange a trial with Parma, a top-tier Italian club. He insists that he saw your son play through a special scouting system. You have video calls with the agent—he seems polite and trustworthy. However, he immediately asks for around a thousand euros. “As soon as possible,” he urges.

You search his name online. Nothing negative comes up, so you send him the money. But the trial in Italy never happens. The agent says he’s sorry, but he won’t return the money. (...)

According to Tokos, if an agent asks for money up front, it's extremely suspicious behavior. “In 20 years of practice, I’ve never come across that. Usually, the club covers the cost of the trial. At most, the player pays for travel and even that is sometimes covered by the agent,” says Tokos, a sports lawyer and one of the first Slovak football agents, who has facilitated transfers of players to sixteen different countries.

“If someone asks for money in advance, that alone is disqualifying in the agent community. The market usually filters out such agents on its own,” he says. He explains that agents make a living from the commission they earn when they successfully complete a deal. Typically, it’s ten percent of the player’s gross income. FIFA recommends a commission three times lower. “The percentage from gross income applies when the player pays the agent; if the club takes on the cost, it's a fixed sum, not a percentage,” he says.

He adds that when it comes to transfers to wealthy Western European leagues, the percentage may be lower, but the agent ultimately earns more. As for players under 18, according to Slovak Football Association regulations, intermediaries should not be entitled to any fee, Tokos notes. (...)