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After a few months of break, especially for you, we come back with articles in the form of interviews so that you can benefit from the many years of experience of our partners, i.e. management agencies, sports psychologist trainers and more.
Today, Ms Radoslava Trifonova from the Aurora Dream Team agency gave you valuable advice which, if properly applied, may have a huge impact on your football development.
WELCOME
1) HELLO, CAN YOU START BY TELLING FOOTBALLTALENTSTUBE.COM SOMETHING ABOUT YOURSELF? WHAT IS YOUR EXPERIENCE AS A SOCCER AGENT? HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN AN AGENT? WHAT'S THE NAME OF YOUR AGENCY? WHAT MARKETS AND WITH WHICH PLAYERS DO YOU WORK WITH?
My name is Radoslava Trifonova, I’m football agent since two years but my affair with football started a long time ago. Was part of the most famous Bulgarian club - CSKA, after was scout for talents in Italy. My company is “Aurora Dream Team”, our motto is “Sogni con noi” which in Italian means “Dream with us”. We’re working with young and talented players. Our goal is to help them to grow up, develop and to go on the same path!
2) AS A PORTAL, WE ARE LOOKING FOR TALENTED PLAYERS WHO VERIFY THEIR SKILLS ON THE BASIS OF VIDEOS IN VARIOUS FORMS, FROM RECORDINGS OF MATCHES, DAILY TRAINING, TO CHALLENGES AND TESTS IN FOOTBALL, WHEN THE PORTAL IS INTERESTED IN A PLAYER, WE WATCH HIM LIVE, AND THEN BET ON THE BEST AND THE MOST CONSCIENTIOUS IN TEAMS OR MANAGEMENT AGENCIES COOPERATING WITH THE PORTAL. DOES YOUR AGENCY USE VIDEO IN ADDITION TO LIVE VIEWING TO SELECT PLAYERS TO COLLABORATE WITH? TO WHAT EXTENT CAN THE VIDEO REFLECT THE TRUE SKILL AND TALENT OF THE PLAYER?
Actually yes, full games and also we send scouts to follow the presents of the players in live games. Our analyst team is very good, very rare they made mistake. But now in times when Covid totally changed the rules of the “game“ called “normal life”, we can’t go and follow them but there’s always a way. Next month we organise training camp for few days with very talented players who’ll be followed by scouts from top European clubs.
3) TELL US WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER TO BE YOUR GREATEST SUCCESS AS AN AGENT? WHICH PLAYER WAS YOUR BIGGEST DISCOVERY AND WHAT CAUGHT YOUR ATTENTION THE MOST ABOUT THIS PLAYER?
My greatest achievements are often directly related to my greatest challenges. Every player who I’m working with is great and we’ll accomplish our goals together.
4) WHAT DO YOU THINK, GIVEN YOUR EXPERIENCE, AT WHAT AGE DOES A PLAYER STILL HAVE A CHANCE FOR A CAREER, WHEN HE RECEIVES THE SUPPORT OF THE RIGHT AGENT TO GUIDE HIS CAREER?
In my opinion and experience - the talent doesn’t has an age. If you have it, the age is just a number. The history knows a lot of players who was discovered at early age or someone noticed the talented player in street games and the life goes to totally different direction. The role of the agent is very important - the right agent can help you to be the best, agents also take care of players outside of sports. If you’re lucky enough, you find a second family.
5) WHAT DO YOU USUALLY PAY ATTENTION TO WHEN OBSERVING PLAYERS, WHAT DIFFERENTIATES THOSE PLAYERS WORTH INVESTING IN FROM THOSE WHO ARE A WASTE OF TIME?
The self determination, game intelligence, how far he wants to go and the hunger for success!
6) WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO PLAYERS WHO ARE CURRENTLY FAR FROM PROFESSIONAL SOCCER DUE TO NOT BEING ABLE TO WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY SHOULD DO?
To practice every day, to keep motivation on high level, stamina and pace to become priority, to don’t put sport over education because if it’s not worked with football he need plan B and to NEVER GIVE UP!
7) OUR WEBSITE HAS BEEN RUNNING FOR LESS THAN A YEAR, BUT WE ALREADY WORK WITH MANY AGENCIES, SCOUTING COMPANIES AND TEAMS IN EUROPEAN LEAGUES. IS YOUR AGENCY READY TO SERVE PLAYERS FROM THE PORTAL AFTER VERIFICATION OF THE PLAYER? IN THAT CASE WHAT ARE YOUR REQUIREMENTS FOR THESE PLAYERS?
Congrats for your interesting project and I’m wishing you a lot of success and more and more successful stories to tell in future. We’re always support new ideas and projects. Also we never know where we can find the next talent, so we’re already a big fan of you.
8) CAN YOU BRIEFLY DESCRIBE THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS IN YOUR AGENCY?
I prefer to scout the players by myself to be honest, follow their games for a year for example. To me it’s very important their behaviour when they’re out of the stadium - school, grades, friends, how they spent their free time, what they do, to know their parents etc If I can’t do that, send some of my scouts. But the process is long and we have to be sure before make a decision to work with a player or not.
9) WHAT DO YOU THINK DISTINGUISHES AN AMATEUR WITH GOOD FOOTBALL SKILLS FROM A FOOTBALLER WHO CAN BECOME A PROFESSIONAL WITH THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF WORK?
Good players takes practice and games seriously. The great ones take academics, nutrition, warms-ups, individual work, conditioning, practice, games seriously and know how to manage their time outside the pitch.
10) LIST 6 ASPECTS OF BOTH MENTAL AND FOOTBALL SKILLS THAT CHARACTERIZE TALENTED FOOTBALLERS.
Besides me the top 3 football skills are technique, physical and game intelligence. As a certified sport psychologist, so here I’ll make a list a little longer (laughing) Attitude, motivation, goals and commitment, self-talk, managing emotions and concentration. Lately a lot of players struggle with managing of emotions, so I help them with different techniques and advising them to try meditation and yoga for example. To some of them sounds really strange at the very beginning but after some sessions they see the benefits of it.
