Jonathan Barnett, one of the most powerful agents in the world, says he often teases Jorge Mendes about Gareth Bale’s record move to Real Madrid, but there is frustration about the governing bodies’ lack of understanding of his occupation

High in the hills on the outskirts of Cannes, in a splendid villa that looks down on the azure blue seas of the French Riviera, Jonathan Barnett has been discussing everything from Gareth Bale’s relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo to the absence of any London 2012 Olympic legacy, when the conversation turns to his own industry and whether the public perception of football agents frustrates him.

“If I’m cold and callous, I don’t care,” Barnett says. “I think what frustrates me is the lack of understanding of what a proper agency does, by Fifa and the FA. That frustrates me more than anything else. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous that they come up with rules when nobody knows what they’re talking about. I don’t understand why the FA haven’t sat down with agents, especially someone like myself, to find out what we actually do for a living, because they haven’t got a clue.”

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Barnett is one of the most high profile football agents in the business. He set up Stellar Group with David Manasseh at the start of the 1990s and now has a vast stable of players that includes Bale, the most expensive footballer in the world, Joe Hart, Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana … “We can go through them all, you’d run out of tape,” Barnett says, smiling. “We don’t want to name players, but we also have some of the best in Holland, some of the best in Germany, Spain, South America – we’re worldwide now.

“As far as global football is concerned, we’re the largest football agency, player-wise and everything else. Jorge Mendes is probably the only person close to us. But Jorge is different. He does much more work with clubs; we solely work with players. It’s a different operation, very successful, and I’ve got a lot of time for Jorge, I think he’s a brilliant agent. But what am I going to say? I think I’m better. Jorge may have his own say on that. But, listen, he’s got Ronaldo, I can’t knock that. He’s the biggest operation out there.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo are all smiles during the 2014 Champions League semi-final, second leg with Bayern Munich. Photograph: Kieran McManus/BPI/Rex

A gregarious character, Barnett is generous with his time and forthright with his opinions, especially when the subject is the profession that enabled him to upgrade a beaten-up Honda for a hand-crafted Bentley. At a time when Fifa has handed over responsibility for agents to national associations, Barnett says he is on a “crusade to see all players looked after well” and to rid the game of what he describes as “second-rate” representatives. “Too many people are amateurs at what they do. I think we’ve seen some of the worst sides of it the last few months, certain agents just don’t know what they’re doing and make fools of everybody. It’s a professional job, there should be apprenticeships, even those stupid exams that people had to do … there should be proper courses, people should have to qualify to be an agent. It’s a very important thing to let somebody negotiate your contract, and I am so strongly in favour of regulations that make agents accountable.”

While fiercely proud of his own success, Barnett is fully aware that his line of work is “much maligned”. He tells a story about his late mother watching a TV programme featuring Eric Hall – one of the first breed of football agents and a man who took to waving £20 notes and barking “monster, monster” to anyone that would listen to him – and how she was left confused at the end of it as to exactly what her son did for a living. That stereotype that Hall created, Barnett says, is a little outdated now. “I don’t know anybody that has a camel coat and a cigar in our office.”

The potential riches, though, are there for all to see, in particular on the back of a summer when Premier League clubs spent a record £870m. Barnett, by his own admission, lives to a “high standard” but the 65-year-old also says “that’s what I’ve worked for”. So what does he think about the argument that agents are taking money out of the game? “Taking money out the game? Does the chief executive not take money out of the game, does he not get paid? There are chief executives of football clubs earning £2m-£3m a year. I don’t think they put too much back into it. I don’t believe the PFA chief executive puts too much money back into the game,” he says. “Listen, in 1966 we won the World Cup. It was our greatest moment and those 11 guys didn’t have agents, I don’t think. And the clubs were looking after them so well, a number of them had to sell their shirts to have money to live. And I’m not sure how many of that 11 were ever able to retire. Every player that works with me, we will make sure that they will not have to run a pub or go on television to do punditry. Their lives will be well looked after, and my life will be well looked after.”

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For Barnett, a football agent’s job has clear parameters. He has no desire to socialise with the players – “I’m not looking to be their best friend” – and is adamant that parents should not interfere. What he promises to do is take care of every aspect of a player’s finances and be at the end of the phone 24 hours a day if they have a problem. “I will talk on their behalf and get it sorted out. But I always say to them: ‘Don’t come to me if the coach says you’re rubbish on the field and you need to head a ball.’ I’m not there for that. They’ve got to put that right.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jonathan Barnett hit back at Roy Keane’s criticism of Gareth Bale Photograph: David Maher/Sportsfile

Last season, however, Barnett made an exception to the rule that keeps him out of on-the-pitch matters. Bale, in his second season at Real Madrid, was getting a bit of flak, in particular after the Champions League semi-final first leg against Juventus. Roy Keane, speaking in his role as a TV pundit, said that the Welshman was so peripheral that his team-mates were effectively playing with 10 men. Armed with statistics to back up his argument, Barnett spoke out in Bale’s defence and said that the Real Madrid players were not passing the ball to his client anything like as often as they were giving it to Ronaldo and Karim Benzema. “I had an analysis made and it was true. I know Mr Ancelotti had a go at me. But then I’m still an agent and he’s not a manager. So one of us is right,” Barnett says, breaking into laughter.

On a more serious note, Barnett believes that Bale is in it for the long haul in Spain and suggests other factors were behind some of the criticism at Madrid last season. “I think there’s a great love of Ronaldo. I think that the new guard is coming and there’s some resentment, perhaps, to that. But I think things will change. Gareth’s now playing in a better position [more centrally], where he wants to play. I’ve always said it, I think he’ll be the best player in the world in the next couple of years.”

And what about Bale’s relationship with Ronaldo? “They don’t go out eating every night together, but it’s fine. There’s no hatred there. Gareth is a quiet guy. They’re complete opposites. But I think Gareth can learn a little bit from Ronaldo as well, interacting maybe a little bit. But he wants his own life and he lives it. Gareth is a great footballer, he doesn’t want anything more. He has some very good endorsements but his whole life is to be the best footballer in the world. I don’t think he wants to be the best model in the world or the best underwear seller. That’s not him.”

Barnett dedicates a fair amount of his time to Bale and now leaves much of the day-to-day running of the business in the hands of Manasseh, whose father provided the finance to set up Stellar 24 years ago. Brian Lara, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis were among their first clients – Manasseh was on Somerset’s books at one stage and Barnett had his own contacts in the cricket world – but getting involved in football, at a time when the Premier League was taking off, changed their lives.

“The truth is that we hit upon something because we were useless at it,” Barnett says. “David and I had never played professional football, so when we went to try and sign the so-called top footballers, they laughed at us: ‘Who are you?’ I had a beaten up old Honda and I used to hide it around the corner when we met footballers. “David said there was only one thing to do and that was to sign young players. We drove all around Britain – and nobody else was doing it – signing young players who we thought were quite good. We signed people like Ashley Cole when he was 15, Richard Wright, Ledley King and Kieron Dyer when they were young, and it went from strength to strength.”

Back in 2006 Barnett’s relationship with Cole ended up landing him in trouble with the FA, who banned him for nine months and fined him £100,000 for his part in organising a secret rendezvous at a London hotel with José Mourinho and Peter Kenyon, the Chelsea manager and chief executive at the time. Cole was an Arsenal player when the meeting took place, leaving Chelsea open to accusations of tapping up, with Barnett cast as the instigator.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ashley Cole celebrates with his Chelsea team-mates after winning the Champions League. Photograph: Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images

How does he reflect on the episode now? “I think I made mistakes. But I also think I was harshly treated. I was made a scapegoat, because it goes on all the time. Also, if Arsenal hadn’t gone back on their word, Ashley would have stayed 100% and that would never have happened. I’m not justifying it, but explaining it. But it was probably the best thing that ever happened to Ashley Cole. Arsenal won nothing, he won everything and financially he was much better off. My job as an agent was done.”

A lifelong Arsenal fan – “I’m not sure Arsène Wenger realises that” – Barnett also has a vested interest in several other sports, including athletics, and he remains deeply frustrated with the fall-out from the 2012 London Olympics. “I think it was completely mishandled,” he says. “The people who put the Olympics on, Sebastian Coe etc, did a fantastic job. But all of them did a rubbish job of getting young people to carry on playing. With all due respect, all of them are completely out of touch with the young people today. There is no legacy, it’s just politicians saying it. The legacy was a block of flats. How many children do you know that went out after the Olympics and played sport? The grassroots is not looked after.

“I really would like to get involved with kids and youth. I think there are ways of doing it. We have such talent. I have an athletics division, track and field, in America. I go round America twice a year and I see the kids playing sport, it’s fantastic and it’s all to do with what we don’t do: seedings and making things exciting for kids; not whenever sports day comes round every kid has to win a prize – that’s crazy. When the school orchestra performs not everyone has to play the violin do they? Bring some excitement back to sport.”

For Barnett, there are winners and losers, whether running on a track at school or working as an agent and being at the centre of the biggest football transfer in history. “I keep reminding Mendes of that Bale deal every time I see him. He ignores it. Absolutely ignores it,” Barnett says, smiling.

“I’m sure he’s looking for some way to break it. But it’s nice, the world record, I’m quite proud of it.”