Pini Zahavi

Pinhas "Pini" Zahavi (Hebrew: פנחס "פיני" זהבי‎; born 1955[1]) is an Israeli football agent.

Pini Zahavi
Born
Pinhas Zahavi

1955 (age 65–66)
Ness Ziona, Israel
OccupationSports agent

Zahavi is known for his involvement in the change of ownership of Chelsea and Portsmouth[2] and for his work as a football agent, especially the (at the time) record-breaking transfer of Rio Ferdinand.

Zahavi is licensed as a football agent from his offices in Tel Aviv through the Israel Football Association.[3]

Early life and career in journalism

Zahavi was born in Ness Ziona, Israel in 1955, the son of a shopkeeper who sold building materials to local tradesmen. He has two elder sisters and a brother.[4][5]

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.[4]

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,[4] and even taking oranges to Melwood, Liverpool's training ground, as a gift for players and staff.[1]

Career as an agent

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.[4] 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.[1] The player had got to know Zahavi through his coverage of Maccabi Tel Aviv in Yedioth Ahronoth.[1] 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.[6]

In 1990, Zahavi negotiated the transfer of another Israeli player, forward Ronnie Rosenthal, from Standard Liège to Liverpool.[4] Kenny Dalglish was by then Liverpool's manager.[4]

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.[1] 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.[7]

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,[8] 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.[9]

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.[7]

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.[1] Zahavi became an influential member of Abramovich's inner circle[2] and was estimated to have earned as much as £5 million from the £111 million that Chelsea spent on players that summer.[1]

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.[1][10][11]

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.[12]

The independent commission established by the Premier League to investigate the incident after an official complaint by Arsenal concluded that Zahavi and Cole's agent Jonathan Barnett had extended an invitation to Chelsea to which the club had responded.[12] Zahavi and Barnett were then present at the Royal Park Hotel, London, on 27 January 2005 when Cole met the Chelsea manager, José Mourinho, and club's chief executive, Peter Kenyon.[13]

Chelsea, Mourinho and Cole were all fined for their part in the affair, while Barnett was fined £100,000 and had his licence suspended by the FA for 18 months, later reduced to a 12-month ban.[13][14] Neither the FA nor the Premier League had any jurisdiction over Zahavi[15] but referred the matter to FIFA, whose investigation was, as of October 2009, ongoing.[16] Zahavi maintained his innocence of any wrongdoing, claiming that "at that time I did not represent Chelsea or Ashley Cole".[17]

Rio Ferdinand

In April 2005, Zahavi denied that Chelsea had been engaged in an illegal approach to the Manchester United player Rio Ferdinand when it emerged[18] that the defender had met Zahavi and Chelsea's chief executive Peter Kenyon at Carpaccio, a restaurant in Chelsea, London, meeting again at the Elysee Greek eatery near Tottenham Court Road hours later. Chelsea denied any approach had been made, although then-Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson accused former Manchester United executive Kenyon of treating his former club with "contempt". Zahavi denied that the meetings were an attempt to pressure Manchester United into improving their offered contract to Ferdinand.[19]

Beginning of association and Yakubu transfer

Zahavi became associated with Portsmouth under the ownership of Milan Mandarić. He worked on the signings of Eyal Berkovic and Yakubu from Maccabi Haifa, owned by Zahavi's school friend Ya'akov Shahar, in April 2003 and was involved in the recruitment of Collins Mbesuma in August 2005.[6][20]

In July 2005, Zahavi agreed a fee of £3.64 million for his part in Yakubu's transfer from Portsmouth to Middlesbrough. The fee, agreed with Middlesbrough's chief executive Keith Lamb, was to be paid in ten installments over five years if Yakubu remained at the club. The amount was the largest agent fee disclosed in English football at that time and was regarded as being extraordinary.[21]

As part of the deal, Zahavi made payments to Barry Silkman, the agent who is understood to have spotted Yakubu's potential when he was playing in Nigeria and to have been responsible for the $500,000 transfer that took the player to Maccabi Haifa in 1999.[6]

Takeover by Alexandre Gaydamak

In January 2006, Zahavi, together with his partner, assisted with the sale of Portsmouth to Alexandre Gaydamak.[22] Earlier in his career, Zahavi had assisted with the sale of Beitar Jerusalem to Gaydamak's father, the Russian–Israeli businessman Arkady Gaydamak.[11][20]

Zahavi worked on a number of deals for Portsmouth's new regime, bringing Avram Grant to the club, initially as a technical director in June 2006, signing a two-year scouting contract worth £800,000, and being involved in signing and selling a number of players.

When Portsmouth went into administration after multiple changes of owner in February 2010, Zahavi was among the 24 agents to whom the club owed almost £9 million. His own share of the outstanding amount totalled £2.074 million.[20]

David Alaba contract negotiations

In September 2020, the contract negotiations between Bayern Munich and David Alaba were lengthy. Uli Hoeneß, former president of Bayern, then called Pini Zahavi "greedy piranha". Hoeneß said that Zahavi wants more than €10 mio. for his services if Alaba signs a new contract.[23][24][25]

Other business interests

With his friend and associate, the businessman Eli Azur, Zahavi co-owns a media company, Charlton, that holds the television rights in Israel for major sports, including those of the English Premier League and the top flight of Israel's domestic football.[7] The decision of the company to broadcast the 2006 FIFA World Cup through a pay-per-view offering proved very unpopular in Israel, leading to a boycott of the service and compromising Zahavi's reputation in the country.[26]

Zahavi also holds a share of HAZ Racing Team, one of the top motorsport teams in Argentina (the "Z" on HAZ comes from his last name).

Personal life

Zahavi is a widower with two children. He lives modestly in a seaside apartment in the north of Tel Aviv and rents a flat in Marble Arch, London.[1] He is the great uncle of footballer Alex Zahavi.

References
  1. Jackson, Jamie. "Profile: Pini Zahavi, football's first and only super-agent", The Observer, 26 November 2005. Retrieved 2007-07-12
  2. Hunter, Andy. "'Mr Fix-it' trusted by top clubs' executives", The Independent 16 June 2007. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
  3. "Pini Zahavi registration", FIFA. Accessed 2010-07-28
  4. Wilson, Jonathan. "From journalist to sports Svengali", The Financial Times 16 June 2007. Retrieved 2010-07-27
  5. Bond, David. "The Man Selling Rio", The Evening Standard 19 July 2002. Retrieved 2010-07-27
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. "Leeds ready for place among elite", BBC, 22 November 2000. Retrieved 2010-07-27
  9. Conn, David. "Why transfers and transparency still do not mix", The Guardian 4 February 2009. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
  10. Belash, Vyacheslav. "One Oligarch's story" Archived 12 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Kommersant 11 November 2004. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
  11. Broadbent, Rick. "Zahavi: from humble beginnings to multimillionaire power broker", The Times 16 June 2007. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
  12. "The full judgement on Cole affair", BBC 1 June 2005. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  13. "Cole's agent handed FA suspension", BBC 26 September 2006. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  14. "Cole's agent Barnett loses ban appeal", ESPN, 1 December 2006. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  15. "Barnett Decision", F.A., 26 September 2006. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  16. Scott, Matt. "Carry on investigating at Fifa", The Guardian 13 October 2009. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  17. Bond, David. "Fifa closing in on Zahavi", Daily Telegraph 26 September 2006. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  18. Brough, Graham and Lewis, Darren. "Rio & The Chelsea Chief: The Head Hunters; Tapping up fear No2 as United's Ferdinand is spotted in dramatic meeting at restaurant", Daily Mirror 13 April 2005. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  19. Jason Burt. "Two meetings but Ferdinand is innocent, says his agent", The Independent 19 April 2005. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  20. Conn, David. "Pini Zahavi, the agent with his finger in many Portsmouth pies", The Guardian 30 March 2012. Retrieved 2012-11-1.
  21. Conn, David. "£3m - Zahavi's fee for taking Yakubu to Boro", The Guardian 17 January 2007. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  22. Conn, David. "Gaydamak masters the game with no rules", The Guardian 11 January 2006. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
  23. Hoeneß: Alaba-Berater „geldgieriger Piranha“, orf.at, 2020-09-13.
  24. FC Bayern - Uli Hoeneß: "David Alaba hat einen geldgierigen Piranha als Berater", spox.de, 2020-09-13.
  25. 'Alaba has a greedy piranha for an agent' - Hoeness blames Bayern defender's representative for lack of new contract, spox.com, 2020-09-13.
  26. Shaul Adar. "Zahavi suffering as Israel boycotts pay-per-view World Cup channel", The Guardian, 6 June 2006. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
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