Becoming a sports agent in Cameroon is a challenging profession.
To practice the profession of a sports agent in Cameroon, there is no need for a diploma or a specific level of studies, even if, in absolute terms, the profession requires multiple skills.
Only a license is required. This authorization is issued by the federation of the sports disciplines for which one wishes to intervene for three (3) years.
Obtaining it is subject to examination. The latter, quite complex, includes a general test (general legal knowledge, sports law) and a technical test (sporting rules relating to the discipline for which one wishes to officiate).
How to Become a Sports Agent in Cameroon
Some schools prepare for the license of football player agents, such as the EAJF (School of Football Players' Agents) or the WST (Worldwide Sports Training).
Note that since the so-called law on modernizing the judicial or legal professions (March 2011), a lawyer can now act as a sports agent.
For the lawyer, there is no need to hold a professional license, but his field of competence is more limited than that of a sports agent. It forbids him to prospect for new talent.
Read Also: Salary of Football Referees in Cameroon.
Player or Sports agent job description
The player's agent mediates between a professional athlete and a sports club. This job is defined and framed by the Sports Code.
Thus, a player's agent or sports agent is "a natural or legal person exercising on an occasional or regular basis for remuneration" one or more of these activities: bringing parties together to conclude a contract relating to the remunerated exercise of the sporting activity, negotiation or conclusion of agreements, management of the assets of professional sportsmen.
The player's agent or the player's agent is thus multitasking: intermediary, tax adviser, asset adviser.
The profession of player agent involves knowledge in many areas: sport, marketing, law, management, taxation, and public relations, not to mention the mastery of foreign languages. If it is necessary to have a good address book, it is also required to be a good communicator, negotiator, and pedagogue.
If the profession is a dream (prospect of significant gains, relations with the world of high-level sport), it is clear that it totals few elected officials.
Thus in Cameroon, only some 20 players' agents work in professional football. And not all are in the same boat.
If a hundred do not work, the remaining 250 are divided between those who earn a comfortable living and those who earn much less.
Sports Agent Salaries in Cameroon
The player's agent receives commissions calculated from the player's gross remuneration. The percentage varies between 2 to 10% (the maximum authorized in Cameroon). This limit does not exist abroad.