The sponsorship courses provided by The FBA helped me to gain knowledge about sponsorship; this internship gave me the experience I needed.
Football has always been the love of my life. My mother always told me that I was born with a football between the feet so it was obvious for me to work in this industry after realizing that I will never become a professional football player at an early age like almost every kid.
I was still thirsty to have football as a big part of my life. I have done a Sports Business Bachelor just after graduating from College. It was an amazing experience because it was something that I love, especially because football was often used as concrete examples. I simply wanted to be specialized in the beautiful game, and that is why I joined The FBA.
My missions at SportiveWays were at first to identify and contact different brands for football clubs. As I am French speaking, I had to find new deals/opportunities for companies or sport organizations (but mostly football). I was also in charge of contacting French speaking clubs (Ligue 1 and 2 clubs, Belgian clubs, Swiss clubs, North African clubs etc.) to know if they were looking for organizing pre-season matches and friendly matches.
The negotiation part was the most interesting but also the most difficult one. There is always something to consider and finding a partnership or a friendly match is a real challenge.
My internship at SportiveWays has been a great experience. The fact that I lived in Barcelona (with every benefit the city has to offer) and being able to perfect my Spanish level was an attractive feature to bring me to SportiveWays as well. Working with Jose Rey (the agency’s Founder & CEO) has been a really interesting experience. Having worked during 7 years for FC Barcelona made him an ultimate professional and dealing with the best football clubs in Europe was highly beneficial and rewarding for me. I have learned a lot from him on how to deal and set up businesses with football clubs which is really difficult to gain experience from. The sponsorship courses provided by The FBA helped me to gain knowledge about sponsorship; this internship gave me the experience I needed.
Louis Gasparini is a Candidate of The FBA’s Professional Master in Football Business 3rd Edition. He can be contacted via LinkedIn.
