For the third year in a row, PROport has compiled a similar rating of influence, ranking all those who have either money, or leverage, or posts, or - at least - good ideas about transforming football, as well as the desire and opportunity to put them into practice.
Konstantin Sarsania is perhaps the most active character in Russian football, managing to solve transfer tasks of Zenit and Rubin in an unimaginable way, to inspire Vitaly Mutko for important decisions, comment on football on TV, develop the best Russian private sports school “Akademika”, train “Sports Academy "And arrange the affairs of dozens of players, even if in the absence of an agent’s license, which he exchanged last year in the RFU for a coaching one. And also Konstantin Sarsania - the character is extremely dynamic. As early as Monday, July 17, in an interview with PROsport, he completely rejected his transfer to Zenit as a sports director, calling himself only a “club consultant,” and on Tuesday, July 18, officially entered into a sports director position. At the same time, leaving nothing of what he had done before.
- How much can an agent influence a player’s transfer value? On his salary?
- I think somewhere around 20 percent. Agents cannot play for a football player. But they can correctly present the player’s strengths, respond in a timely manner to changes in market conditions ...
- Maybe even create it by catalyzing the hype with the help of the press? At certain points, messages in the spirit of “a foreign club is interested in Kerzhakov” appear in Sport Express every other day.
“I have nothing to do with this.” I don’t do these things. If you have doubts that Kerzhakov was interested in Arsenal or Sevilla, call the clubs and specify. They will confirm everything there.
- You as an agent were probably not only fulfilling the wishes of the players, but also advising them something?
- Of course. I helped them make the most accurate decisions based on their own knowledge and experience.
- What have you, in particular, recommended in recent years to Kerzhakov? Leave the Zenith or stay?
- In my opinion, Kerzhakov had one right moment to leave - a couple of years ago at Arsenal. But this transfer became impossible due to the lack of matches for the national team - Yartsev, if you remember, he didn’t put him out then. But in other situations, I’m not sure that going abroad would be a blessing for Kerzhakov. The team progressed, Kerzhakov’s salary grew ...
- How many times over the past three years have the contract conditions of Kerzhakov improved at Zenit?
- Four times.
- Handing over an agent license last spring, you said that IMG is interested in your agent business.
- I was interested. But on one condition - if I myself move to this company and start working there. For me, this option was unacceptable, because I decided to focus on coaching. It would seem IMG, colossus, a leading global company, huh? But there they realize how difficult it is to work in the Russian market without understanding its specifics.
- Why do you need coaching with such a scale of business?
- To become a coach is not some kind of spontaneous decision, but my old idea. A dream can be said. It was about coaching that I thought about when I was finishing my football career. It became an agent rather spontaneously when acquaintances started asking them to arrange contracts abroad, where I had good contacts. And in the spring of 2006, he finally decided to try his hand at coaching, more creative work.
- And what, is there a need for coaching, creative work in the second league - or is there a need to be a “strong business executive”, like ten years ago in the highest? How does this sound like a dream?
- In the western zone, where Sportacademclub plays, it’s an interesting tournament, by the way. Many famous names - Khlestov, Vyazmikin, Kamoltsev. Hard fight. Football ... Yes, not bad, I will say football. The scope for creativity is limited, of course: problems with the infrastructure, the quality of the players, the same refereeing - sometimes they completely “tear off one’s head”. But my coaching ambitions are not limited to the second league. I think a year and a half at this level to work out, some ideas to check and go further.
- Nevertheless, there is a feeling - and even information - that you did not curtail your agent activities.
- The guys are calling, asking for advice. The same Maximov, who recently moved to Zenit, he played with me in Academician, I know this guy since the age of 15. After all, a stranger is not a man - and how can one help here?
This is an interview with Konstantin Sarsaniyah - an element of the block of materials about 33 most influential people in Russian football, which is published in the latest issue of PRO Sport magazine . For the third year in a row, PROport has compiled a similar rating of influence, ranking all those who have either money, or leverage, or posts, or - at least - good ideas about transforming football, as well as the desire and opportunity to put them into practice . Brief results of the rating are as follows:
No. 1 (last year - 2nd place) Roman Abramovich
Owner of London Chelsea, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Football Academy Foundation
No. 2 (3) Evgeny Giner
President and co-owner of CSKA, president of the Russian Premier League
No. 3 (1) Vitaliy Mutko
President of the Russian Football Union
No 4 (5) Valery Filatov
President of Moscow Lokomotiv
No. 5 (-) Guus Hiddink
Head coach of the Russian national team
No. 6 (7) Leonid Fedun
Owner of Moscow Spartak
No. 7 (-) Konstantin Sarsaniya
Zenit Sports Director, head coach of the Sportacademclub
No. 8 (-) Sergey Kapkov
Vice-President of the RFU, Chairman of the Board of the National Football Academy Foundation, Member of the State Duma
No 9 (8) Boris Gromov
Governor of the Moscow Region
No. 10 (-) Jo
Forward CSKA
No. 11 (-) Sergey Lipatov
President of TransTelecom, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lokomotiv
No. 12 (12) German Tkachenko
President, ProSports Management
No. 13 (-) Sergey Shavlo
General Director of Spartak
No. 14 (10) Valery Gazzaev
Head coach of CSKA
No. 15 (-) Petr Makarenko
RFU Commercial Director
No. 16 (-) Sergey Fursenko
President of Zenith
No. 17 (17) Andrey Arshavin
Forward Zenit and the Russian team
No. 18 (14) Vasily Kiknadze
General Director of Sport Channel
No. 19 (-) Kurban Berdyev
Head coach and vice president of Rubin
No. 20 (-) Dick Lawyer
Head coach of Zenit
No. 21 (4) Alexey Fedorychev
Owner of Moscow Dynamo
No 22 (23) Vasily Utkin
Commentator NTV Plus, host of the Football Club program, observer of PRO sports
No. 23 (24) Nikolai Tolstykh
President, Professional Football League
No. 24 (27) Pavel Andreev
Agent
No. 25 (25) Nikolai Levnikov
President of the College of Football Referees
No. 26 (18) Yuri Luzhkov
Moscow Mayor
No 27 (13) Vladimir Aleshin
Owner of the Moscow Torpedo
No. 28 (-) Igor Kolyvanov
Head coach of the youth team of Russia
No. 29 (-) Yuri Belous
General Director of Moscow
No. 30 (-) Yuri Krasnozhan
Head coach of Spartak (Nalchik)
No. 31 (31) Yuri Zavarzin
CEO Dynamo
No. 32 (-) Igor Rabiner
Browser Sport-Express
No. 33 (-) Vyacheslav Fetisov
Head of Rossport