OVERSEAS PLAYING DISASTERS, AGENTS, OPPORTUNITIES

[Mac]

Playing overseas is a big issue for many players and their parents. There are a lot of land mines and troubling situations. The situation with agents and owners is also often a crapshoot. And there are some great situations.

I've been contacted lately by a couple of newly graduated players and parents to share some advice with them. This forum really needs to step up and provide the type of brutally honest information that'll help players get the best jobs and avoid the leagues that take advantage of players.

There are leagues all over the world. Ironically, just about everywhere but here, Africa and Australia. Some of them pay very well. Some not very well. Some try to take advantage of naive players and avoid paying them altogether.

So please start sharing your experiences and advice. What are the better leagues? Who are good agents and what's their contact info? What leagues are not paying and not honoring contracts? What can you do if a team stiffs a player? What are the standard contract conditions you're getting? ETC.

And I hope to keep this string a valuable source of usable and positive information that so many players need very badly.

[Mac]

I'll start it off by sharing a link to Tony Ker's rough experience in Kuwait. This kind of exposure will hopefully send a message to these leagues that they're being exposed and their less than professional practices will do them self-inflicted harm.

Kuwait disappoints volleyball alum

After a frustrating international experience, player returns to train for U.S. national team

* By Farzad Mashhood
* Updated: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 at 1 a.m.
* Published: Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Standout Bruin alumnus Tony Ker returned to the United States after a difficult experience playing professional volleyball for the Al-Jahra Sporting Club in Kuwait.

After graduating from UCLA last summer, Tony Ker set out to see the world.

The former men’s volleyball standout finished his four years as a Bruin with a national championship, four All-American honors and the 2008 Defensive Player of the Year award, among a host of other accomplishments.

Ker was ready to step outside of UCLA and dive into a professional volleyball career.

But his experiences with the Al-Jahra Sporting Club in Kuwait let him down as Ker encountered everything from late paychecks to a quickly deteriorating team.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE:
www.dailybruin.com/stories/2009/may/20/kuwait-disappoints-volleyball-alum/

[matty11]

I'm still waiting for a month salary from Greece and 2.5 months in Cyprus. This is going back 4 and 3 years respectively.

The only team that paid out my full salary was in Spain, and they were late with payments to begin with.

Its kind of a toss up if you ask me. A team might be on point one year and be brutal the next.

[oskar14]

Hey

I´m from Sweden and has played in the highest league in Sweden for a couple of years. I was a unpaid member of the team but we also had a couple of pros every year. During my years we had one UCLA alum and two from George Mason play with us and I think that they all enjoyed their experience very much. The Swedish league isn´t big enough to pay huge contracts (most get around 1500 euros a month) so it´s not somewhere you should go if you´re looking to get rich but if your looking for a great experience I think it´s a solid choice. Swedish people are a pretty good match for north americans culturally and mentally. Swedes are also very honest and for example my team payed out all the salaries this year eventhough the club was on the brink of going under.

[slamjam]

I leave overseas this August 15th to try my luck overseas. Please, if you have any information, post it.

[tuctoac]

Well, as far as agent's go, this is a really tough issue as most of them are @$$%*!*s (exucse my language), it is very rare to find one who is actually interested in where his players will actualy go.

I as a team got cheathed several times because of agents who not only cared about their players, but also didn't care about the teams they are in contact with.

I have a few I can reccomand though.

As far the payments in the leagues, my team doesn't have the biggest budget of them all but we pay on time and as people heard about it, I think that more and more players would be interested.

The problem with payments are usually in Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and maybe couple of other leagues but those leagues have a really low level of paying (but don't forget that this year was a bit special- for the bad, as the economical situation really hurt a lot of teams) though in the leagues I mentioned, it's almost every year.

and MAC, I am happy to present you with this site who done his best to help players such as yourself who want to know more about the different leagues:
www.volleycountry.com/volleyball-country/index.php , there are interviews here from a lot of players who played in different leagues.

P.S.

I am happy to show you this link, about the league in general and my team in private as Victor Bird was in my team (though that after you read the article, I would like to point out that there will be much more games on live TV next season ( : www.volleycountry.com/volleyball-country/israel.html

I hope all the info I gave can help all you young guys that are looking for a team.

[Mac]

Tuctoac, that looks like a very valuable and informative site. I'll have to dig deep into it.

A couple of things... Since the teams typically pay the agents directly, the agents seem to have more loyalty to the teams than to the players. So players may need to push the agents to represent them better. But they have a leverage problem since the agents know from where their bread is buttered.

With all the issues of them handling a lot of players to give them too much personal service, I do keep hearing about Bring It Promotions as an agent that has a healthy business. I would like to hear more about agents who really do a good job of getting players good contracts and who fight for them when things don't go well once they're over there.

[Mac]

If you have info about agents that show they are not serving the players well please share it so a) those of us searching for good agents can know about it, b) so those agents who deserve to be called out for being selfish or unprofessional will be exposed and c) so everyone can learn what's to be expected in dealing with agents.

This info has been kept under a lock and key for too long! Let's have it!

And also, which specific teams stiff players in which specific leagues?

[tuctoac]

As far as Bring It Promotions, no doubt it is one of the biggest agencies and I personally worked with them 2 seasons ago and when I mentioned that there were a few agencies that cheathed me, sad to say but Bring it promotions cheathed me the worst when bringing me a player that had a really bad injury, he ruined my whole season since he cost a big amount.
Furthermore, I personally know from a friend of mine, that he went to Bring it Promotions and when he signed for big cash the agent took much more from his salary as an agency fee and reduced the salary by saying that the club couldn't pay so much, there are much better agents to my opinion though don't forget, I am saying this as a club and not as a player (but still, I know more than one player that says that Bring it promotions is not a company you can rely on).
Other agents, I really don't recommand on accept from bring it are Branislav Mitrovic, VPA1 and maybe there are a few others I forgot, these guys I think are much better:

www.lzsport-pro.com - George Matijasevic is the agent, a French guy and the biggest one in France, he actually has quite few Americans and Puerto Ricans.

www.simgratton.com - Steve Welch is the agent, a Candian guy that works with almost the entire candian nationall team, you cann see that he is able to put young players who just finished college in top teams.

www.assk.com.br - Jorge Assef Neto, Brazilian, I think he is the most exclusive agent in the world, he has a lot of players in Italy A1 and Russia A1.

www.bmpsports.com - Geraldo Maciel, Brazilian, really nice guy with good players.

www.image4sport.com - Andre Philippe, French.

www.finnvolley.com - Jouni Parkkali, Finnish, really nice guy though most of his players are from Finalnd, but he has players in Italy, Greece, France, Finland, Poland etc..

www.elteevolley.com -Lex Thevissen, Dutch, has many players from all over the world, very proffesional.

www.starlit.nl - Guido Gortzen,Dutch, this guy is probably the best connected though he doesn't have many players, he was amongst the best Outside hitters ever, played in Italy and Russia.

hey Mac, I guess this issue is now wide open!!

[giba911]

Are there any NIRSA players playing overseas?

[swingaway]

Nice list of agents tuctoac! Great information.

[tuctoac]

Thanksm I have like 15 more ( :

[BIP]

tuctoac, Where do you coach? and who is this injured player that ruined your season? Your fairly anonymous posting name makes it tough to decide whether or not to comment on your posts...

and giba911, What a "NIRSA Player"? (please excuse my ignorance)

[Not Me]

Nirsa is the organization that runs the club sports championships.

So He is asking if it is possible to go from playing on a club team at at US college to playing professionally overseas.

[gobears]

yes you can go from playing on a club team to playing overseas. There are a ton of pro teams at various levels. Cal has had several playing in Sweden and one for some 6-7 years, League MVP most years there....and now a coach there. He was a VERY strong player here.

You would want to seriously consider going on some trips that Bring It or any other group sets up so players can be seen in Europe. Obviously D1 NCAA level players have immediate credibility...