Jorge Mendes

Representing players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Nani, Angel Di Maria and Victor Valdes, Jorge Mendes, also known as the ‘King of football agents, is a very well-connected football agent. He has a monopoly on Portuguese football.

Darren Dein

The son of former Arsenal chairman David Dein, who was forced out of the club in 2007, Darren has advised several of the top players at Arsenal on commercial or playing contracts ever since. Despite being the best man at Arsenal icon Thierry Henry’s wedding, Dein was responsible for brokering lucrative deals away from the club for players such as Cesc Fabregas, Robin Van Persie, Emmanuel Adebayor, and Gael Clichy — all of whom left Arsenal on his advice.

Paul Stretford

Having dared to take on a 16-year-old Wayne Rooney and manage his career ever since, Paul Stretford is one of the boldest agents around. He was the driving influence behind the England striker’s two transfer requests at Manchester United and it speaks volumes for the agent that he even dared to take on Sir Alex Ferguson. He also represents Harry Redknapp and Roberto Mancini besides Rooney.

Pere Guardiola

Pere Guardiola is brother of football manager Pep Guardiola of Bayern Munich. He has made a career orchestrating transfers and is linked to several deals involving Barcelona youth team players. His clients include Luis Suarez, Jon Toral, Hector Bellerin and Isaac Cuenca.

Jonathan Barnett

A football agent and chairman and founder of Stellar Group Limited, Jonathan Barnett is also known for helping launch Lennox Lewis’ career in boxing. Some of his clients include Ashley Cole, Gareth Bale, Joe Hart, Wojciech Szczesny, Rafael, Fabio and Darren Bent. But in 2006, he was charged over tapping up offences relating to Ashley Cole’s transfer to Chelsea from Arsenal.

Tim Hager

Tim Hager works for the WB Sport Management agency. Though he is one of the least-known agents around, his client list and ability to cause trouble among clubs gets him attention. Among his clients are Yann M’Vila, Mamadou Sakho and Antoine Griezmann.

Mino Raiola

Italian football agent Mino Raiola represents stars like Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Mario Balotelli, Edinson Cavani and Etienne Capoue and is known to be involved in big transfer deals from all across Europe. Raiola grew up in Haarlem, Netherlands. His parents had an Italian restaurant in which he also helped out while attending law school. In 1987, Raiola started his own company. In addition to his business, Raiola also focused on a career in football. At the age of 22 he joined HFC Haarlem.

Pini Zahavi

Pini Zahavi, the son of a shopkeeper who sold building material to local tradesmen, played a bit of football in Israel and also has some coaching experience as he coached their youth team for a while, too, before joining Israel’s army. Later, he became a football journalist and worked with Israeli newspapers Hadashot Hasport and Yedioth Ahronoth.

Jerome Anderson

Unlike most football agents with some playing experience, English football's most controversial agent Jerome Anderson trained as a banker and worked as a currency trader and in insurance. But Anderson soon gained recognition in the field after representing players of the likes of Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp at Arsenal. He is often criticised for taking control of transfers at Manchester City and Blackburn. His other clients include John Obi Mikel, Eduardo, Axel Witsel and Kieran Gibbs.

Cezary Kucharski

After retiring from football in 2007, Polish striker Cezary Kucharski, who besides wearing his country colour also played for clubs like Switzerland's FC Aarau, Spain’s Legia Warsaw and Sporting de Gijon, Greece’s Iraklis and Poland’s Gornik Leczna, is a rising star on the football agency scene. He has an impressive list of clients in Germany as well as his native Poland who include Robert Lewandowski, Jakub Blaszczykowski and Dimitar Rangelov.

Barry Silkman

Former English midfielder Barry Silkman, who briefly played for Leyton Orient after a short spell with Manchester City, became a football agent during the 1990s after a failed attempt to go into management. The 60-year-old has been involved in plenty of big deals ever since. But he is mostly known for being a broker of deals, rather than a straight agent, often getting involved at the last minute to help complete transfers. Some of his bigger clients include David Villa, Demba Ba and Ravel Morrison.