January 25 – Premier League Chelsea has signed a two-year representation deal with Doyen Global as its exclusive player endorsement agency. Doyen Global will work with the club’s commercial team on the sale of image rights of Chelsea’s men’s and women’s first teams.
Doyen has long been a leader in the image rights area working with a host of talent including David Beckham, Neymar Jr, Usain Bolt, Owen Farrell and Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Founders Matthew Kay (formerly CAA) and Simon Oliveira (the architect behind David Beckham’s management company 19 Entertainment), are specialists in maximising the value of image rights, though the Chelsea deal is a significantly different one for their agency.
While they have made their name working with big name talent (Beckham, Neymar, Xavi, Simeone to name a few), the Chelsea deal gives them a much greater sales bandwidth as they have two full squads to work with and the opening up multiple markets, both in terms of the individuals profiles but also internationally – Chelsea’s mens team recruited 16 of the 21 players used so far this season from non-English clubs.
Doyen Global managing director Matthew Kay said: “Chelsea are one of the world’s biggest football clubs and we are truly excited to strike this partnership and help them to achieve the level of success off the pitch that they have achieved on it.”
Doyen manages 65 players across Europe and has a managerial partnership with Muy Manero in Holland and Belgium. Having been involved in the third party ownership of players via Doyen Group associates, the company quickly moved back into more traditional player representation with a powerful specialism in image rights management once TPO was banned. It is the image rights area that has interesting potential for Chelsea – matching star player brands with the club brand in multiple markets and sponsorship sectors.
Chelsea’s commercial director, Chris Townsend, said: “We are delighted to partner with Doyen Global, a leader in the commercial representation of players, and an agency that has built its success on the key foundations of integrity, hard work and talent, principles that naturally align with those of Chelsea. The club has some of the world’s leading players – in both our men’s and women’s teams – and we look forward to working closely with Doyen Global to achieve great things.”
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