Pini Zahavi

Pinhas "Pini" Zahavi ( he, פנחס "פיני" זהבי; born 1955Jackson, Jamie
"Profile: Pini Zahavi, football's first and only super-agent"
The Observer, 26 November 2005. Retrieved 2007-07-12) is an Israeli football agent.

Zahavi was involved in the change of ownership of Chelsea and PortsmouthHunter, Andy
"'Mr Fix-it' trusted by top clubs' executives"
The Independent 16 June 2007. Retrieved 2010-07-27. and for his work as a football agent, especially the (at the time) record-breaking transfer of Rio Ferdinand.

Zahavi's offices are in Tel Aviv.

Biography

Zahavi was born in Ness Ziona, Israel in 1955, to a family of Jewish background. He is the son of a shopkeeper who sold building materials to local tradesmen. He has two elder sisters and a brother.Wilson, Jonathan
"From journalist to sports Svengali"
The Financial Times 16 June 2007. Retrieved 2010-07-27Bond, David
"The Man Selling Rio"
The Evening Standard 19 July 2002. Retrieved 2010-07-27

Zahavi is a widower with two children. He lives in a seaside apartment in the north of Tel Aviv and rents a flat in Marble Arch, London. He is the great uncle of footballer Alex Zahavi.

Zahavi began a career as a football journalist after dropping out of university. He worked for the Israeli newspapers ''Hadashot Hasport'', ''Yedioth Ahronoth'' and ''Hadashot''.

Zahavi negotiated his first deal in 1979, the transfer of Israeli defender Avi Cohen from Maccabi Tel Aviv to Liverpool. As a sports journalist, he built up a network of contacts throughout the 1980s. He gave up his job as a journalist in 1998 and negotiated his second deal the following year. This marked the beginning of his career as an agent and he continued to develop close ties in the football world by organising friendly internationals in Israel, inviting players, including Graeme Souness and Kenny Dalglish, to holiday at his villa in Eilat, and even taking oranges to Melwood, Liverpool's training ground, as a gift for players and staff.

Sports agent career

First transfer dealings

Zahavi's first transfer deal was undertaken in 1979 when he helped arrange the transfer of Israeli defender Avi Cohen from Maccabi Tel Aviv to Liverpool for £200,000. Zahavi, who travelled to England regularly to watch football, recommended Cohen to Liverpool when he saw Peter Robinson, the then secretary of the club, at Heathrow airport during a flight delay caused by fog. The player had got to know Zahavi through his coverage of Maccabi Tel Aviv in ''Yedioth Ahronoth''. Zahavi was paid an introduction fee for his part in the deal.

A year later, Zahavi arranged a loan move to Maccabi Tel Aviv for Manchester City player Barry Silkman, with whom Zahavi would later be associated with when Silkman became a football agent.Conn, David
"How Zahavi made contact sport an art form and became English football's kingmaker"
The Guardian 17 January 2007. Retrieved 2010-07-28.

In 1990, Zahavi negotiated the transfer of another Israeli player, forward Ronnie Rosenthal, from Standard Liège to Liverpool. Kenny Dalglish was by then Liverpool's manager.

Rio Ferdinand

By this time, Zahavi had built an extensive network of contacts within English football. His friendships included not just Graeme Souness and Dalglish, but also Terry Venables, Ron Atkinson and Alex Ferguson, as well as many more among the next generation of managers and players.

In 1997, Zahavi negotiated the transfer of Israeli midfielder Eyal Berkovic from Southampton to West Ham United. Zahavi's association with Berkovic had already been responsible for the player's move from Maccabi Haifa to English football at Southampton, then being managed by Zahavi's friend, Graeme Souness.Bond, David, Northcroft, Jonathan and Hawkey, Ian. "Pini plots world domination", The Sunday Times, 13 July 2003
Link to article on InfoTrac National Newspapers Database (login required)
Retrieved 2010-07-27.

A side effect of the West Ham deal was that it was brought Zahavi into contact with Rio Ferdinand. Zahavi handled the transfer that took Ferdinand from West Ham to Leeds United for £18 million in 2000, and then his £30 million transfer from Leeds to Manchester United in 2002. As part of the deal, Zahavi was himself paid £1.13 million.Conn, David
"Why transfers and transparency still do not mix"
The Guardian 4 February 2009. Retrieved 2010-07-27.

Zahavi was a friend of the Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, whom he had first got to know in the late 1980s, and by the time of the Ferdinand transfer he was responsible for brokering almost every major Manchester United deal, including the sale of Jaap Stam to Lazio for £16.5 million and the purchase of Juan Sebastián Verón from the same club for £28.1 million in 2001. Juan Sebastián Verón had been signed for Lazio by another friend of Zahavi's, Sven-Göran Eriksson, whom he knew first as a young coach at Benfica.

Roman Abramovich and Chelsea

In 2003, Zahavi played an important and central role in Roman Abramovich's acquisition of Chelsea and in the influx of players that followed. Zahavi became an influential member of Abramovich's inner circle and was estimated to have earned as much as £5 million from the £111 million that Chelsea spent on players that summer.

In 1998, Zahavi had been introduced to Abramovich in Moscow by a mutual friend and so was able to provide an introduction when he was approached by Trevor Birch, the chief executive of the heavily indebted Chelsea, who were on the verge of being unable to pay their players' wages.Belash, Vyacheslav
"One Oligarch's story"
, Kommersant 11 November 2004. Retrieved 2010-07-27.Broadbent, Rick
"Zahavi: from humble beginnings to multimillionaire power broker"
The Times 16 June 2007. Retrieved 2010-07-27.

"Tapping-up" controversies

Ashley Cole

In 2005, The Football Association (FA) recommended that Zahavi be investigated by the responsible bodies for his part in the "tapping-up" of the Arsenal left back Ashley Cole, who was approached by Chelsea in contravention of Premier League regulations."The full judgement on Cole affair"
BBC
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