Inter Milan President Beppe Marotta shared his insights on the changing landscape of football transfers during the event “The Transfer Market: An Opportunity for Clubs and the Football Industry” held at the Sheraton Hotel in Milan. With nearly 100 transfer windows under his belt and 50 years of experience as a football executive, Marotta offered a unique perspective on the evolution of the transfer market.
Marotta began by reminiscing about his early days in the industry: “We’re talking about a time when there was a sports bond. I was a young sporting director in Serie B, and every season we had to renew players’ contracts. Players were registered with the teams, and those who didn’t sign at the beginning of the season remained registered for life but couldn’t take part in the sporting season.”
He continued, “I used to have each player come to my rooms, giving priority to the older ones because they influenced the younger ones. So I’m starting from a market of this type, where there were only clubs. Today, instead, the player has a priority role, and rightly so. Plus, there are agents who play an important role, even if they are the recipients of a certain part of the sums and investments. This is the modern vision of football, and I have to adapt to this type of reality.”
Addressing the role of technology in modern football management, Marotta stated, “The good modern manager must adapt to the concepts that dominate today and concern the field of innovation. You have to deal with artificial intelligence, with algorithms. I belong to a different generation and I have to adapt, otherwise I’m out of this context.”
However, Marotta emphasized the continued importance of human judgment: “These innovative tools must be made available to the manager and human intelligence, which remains the basis of final decisions. Otherwise, we talk about everything, but the ‘entrance test’, the interview, and the very essence of the player and the manager, namely the human aspect, are missing. And it is precisely this that often determines the success of a player’s purchase.”
Marotta also touched on the importance of character assessment in player recruitment: “I want to create a task force that can identify the player from this perspective – if he is present and how on social media, understand what his natural habitat is, if he is married or not, and so on. So okay with the data, and we’re understanding how artificial intelligence can help the club even more, but today we lack this other aspect that has often generated strong disappointments. Strong capital has been invested in players who were not great men. There is a difference between talent and being a champion: talent must be accompanied by mental qualities that if one doesn’t have, he will never become a champion.”
Concluding with comments on the Champions League, Marotta said, “On Wednesday we had a secretariat element that in real-time adjusted the ranking based on the results. At one point we were fourth but we could have been second or third. Then for goal difference we remained fourth. But anyway we had the oscillation of the teams, who was among the first eight, who was out, like Atalanta who in the end remained out. We are facing a very interesting and adrenaline-fueled situation that I accept. Then, of course, there is the risk of a derby. This situation in the playoffs could be better protected for our ranking which otherwise goes down. But I see that everyone is very interested so let’s accept it.”
