Credit and context
This in-depth feature draws from Pavel Zika’s long, wide-ranging conversation with Deník Zprávy on the Vládci fotbalu podcast. We curated, translated and lightly edited quotations from Czech to English for clarity. FootballAgencies.com did not conduct the interview; all quotes originate from Deník Zprávy and the Vládci fotbalu team.
A family of FIFA agents
Pavel Zika, founder of Global Sports agency, smiles when asked whether he still spends entire days talking football with his sons – breakfast Champions League highlights, lunchtime debates about form, evening analysis of the Czech national team.
“Time has moved on,” he admits. Both sons are married with families of their own, but football remains the family language. Filip still lives with his parents in a large house in Průhonice, so the routine simply shifted. “We agree on certain days. We meet in my office, switch on the screens and ask, ‘What did you watch, what stood out?’”
What makes the Zikas unique is not just their obsession, but their paperwork. Pavel is convinced they are “probably the only family in the world” where a father and two sons all hold full FIFA agent licenses. Over twenty-seven years in the business he has never met another trio like it.
The path was never forced. As a young father he simply took the boys everywhere – Sunday triple-headers, long days at stadiums, hours of travel. “They did not see anything else from me at home,” he recalls. Football became the atmosphere they breathed.
Today David and Filip are full partners inside Global Sports. Pavel describes them as a blend of both parents: Filip more competitive, David calmer and more reflective. “On the important things we are on the same page,” he says. That balance allows the agency to function like an extended family – three licensed agents, one shared vision.
From Votice to Buenos Aires: how a trader became an agent
Before Global Sports, Pavel Zika was not a scout or club official. He was a foreign-trade specialist. After university he joined a state export company and, at the end of 1989, his boss asked how quickly he could learn Spanish. When Pavel answered “two or three years,” the reply came back: “You have two months. You are going to Argentina.”
So the young family swapped a brand-new Prague apartment for Buenos Aires. Zika served as a trade delegate, then later founded his own import business in the Mercosur region.
Argentina left a deep mark. He remembers the steaks, the red wine and the easygoing mañana culture. He also remembers the football – meeting World Cup-winning captain and coach Daniel Passarella, watching Diego Maradona’s first match for Newell’s Old Boys, listening to an entire stadium chant “Diego” in unison.
Those eight years abroad would later shape how he advised players about moving to new countries, learning languages and adapting to different cultures. When he eventually returned to the Czech Republic in the late 1990s, he combined his business experience, love of sport and contacts into something new: a sports agency.
Founding Global Sports
In 1998 Zika passed the tough FIFA agents’ exam in Zurich and launched his own company. He remembers his wife sketching the original globe logo at the kitchen table. The idea was always wider than just football. Under the Global Sports banner he represented hockey players, rowers, cyclists, figure skaters and Olympic champions alongside footballers.
“I always wanted to do something with sport,” he says. “So it is fulfilling that it worked out and still does.”
Over the years, Zika estimates he has been involved in more than 330 international transfers. Many brought trophies and headlines. Some brought stress, midnight calls and unexpected complications. All of them, he says, required a mix of legal knowledge, negotiation skills and human psychology.
“With the player you have to be a psychologist. Between buying and selling clubs you are a moderator, calming egos on both sides,” he explains. “The representation contract means you must make sure the player is comfortable – from salary and bonuses to lawyers, housing or even family issues.”
Discovering Petr Cech: spotting a generational talent
Ask people in European football what they associate with Pavel Zika and most will answer the same: Petr Cech to Chelsea. For Zika, the story began much earlier.
Shortly after returning from Argentina he attended the 1998 Under-16 European Championship in Moravia. The Czech team finished fourth, but their goalkeeper stood out as something else entirely. Cech, then still a teenager, was named the best goalkeeper of the tournament and, as Zika recalls, “maybe even player of the tournament.”
At that time, established Czech agents like Pavel Paska and Zdenek Nehoda worked mainly with the stars of Euro 96. Zika decided to focus on the next wave. He approached Cech – surprisingly still without an agent – and then moved on to other prospects such as Štěpán Vachoušek, Petr Voříšek and David Rozehnal.
With Cech he quickly realised he was dealing with something special. “Petr was exceptional,” he says. “Intelligent, hardworking, well brought up, with parents who never pushed him. It was clear he was determined to reach his goal.”
Sparta Prague: the first big step
The first big transfer was not to a foreign giant but to Sparta Prague. At the time the club already had three strong goalkeepers – Postulka, Blazek and Spit – and media questioned why Sparta needed another.
Behind the scenes, club president Vlastimil Kostal was convinced he knew exactly what he was doing. The move cost tens of millions of Czech crowns, a huge fee domestically. But it gave Cech the stage he needed: Champions League group-stage football in the 2000–01 season under coach Jaroslav Hřebík.
That autumn Sparta beat Feyenoord 4–0 in Prague and won again in Rotterdam. The same Feyenoord side would later drop into the UEFA Cup and go on to win the trophy, beating Borussia Dortmund with Jan Koller and Tomáš Rosický in the final. For Cech and Zika, those nights confirmed that their bet on Sparta had been the right one.
Inter Milan or a “golden middle path”? Choosing Rennes
By 2002 it was clear the next step would take Cech abroad. Offers came from Italy – including interest from Inter Milan – but Zika urged caution.
He reminded his client of the reality of big-club politics. Inter already had top goalkeepers; breaking into the lineup might take years. “Yes, it would look nice on the front page with Petr in an Inter shirt,” he told him, “but would you play?”
Instead, he proposed what he calls a “golden middle path” – a club big enough to compete, yet small enough to guarantee minutes and personal development. That club turned out to be Stade Rennais in Ligue 1.
Rennes offered two things that impressed Zika. First, the chance for a young Czech goalkeeper to experience life abroad, away from parents and friends, and to grow as a person. Second, the presence of respected goalkeeping coach Christophe Lollichon and the French national-team setup, which he believed would polish Cech’s game even further.
The transfer went through, and within months Cech was starring at the Under-21 European Championship and preparing for Euro 2004.
The Barcelona that slipped away
In 2003 Zika thought he had lined up a dream move: Petr Cech to FC Barcelona. To this day he calls it his “unfulfilled wish.”
Before the club’s presidential elections he met several times with the main candidate, Lluís Bassat. Presidential campaigns in Barcelona often revolve around promises of marquee signings. Cech was on Bassat’s list of planned arrivals, alongside other stars.
“I was in Barcelona three times, I met with the main candidate for Barcelona president – there were presidential elections, which is a huge event, hundreds of thousands of members.
“The main favorite, Mr. Bassat, I met him twice, and the third time we were finalizing things.
“So I was negotiating with Mr. Bassat, they wanted a list of players, and as a goalkeeper, Petr Cech was on it. And then, an unassuming Barcelona lawyer, Mr. Laporta, who was an outsider, second or third in the polls, pulled out a trump card a few days before the election: “I’ll bring David Beckham.” That changed everything, and people threw their votes to Mr. Laporta.”
Laporta won, then quickly admitted Beckham would instead be joining Real Madrid. To soften the blow he signed Ronaldinho from Paris Saint-Germain, who went on to become the best player in the world at Barça.
For Zika and the Cech family, however, it meant the Camp Nou door closed. “We shed a few tears,” he admits. The Barcelona chapter would remain a what-if.
Wrestling egos: how Petr Cech finally joined Chelsea
The consolation prize proved historic. In January 2004, six months before Euro 2004, Chelsea made their move. On paper the deal looked straightforward: an ambitious Premier League club owned by Roman Abramovich signing one of Europe’s best young goalkeepers.
The complication came from the other side. Rennes belonged to French billionaire François-Henri Pinault, whose business empire dominated Brittany. When Zika and club sport director Pierre Dréossi pushed for the transfer, Pinault resisted. “I am not going to put a bag of money in goal,” he reportedly argued. “I need Petr Cech.”
What followed was a negotiation not only between clubs but between two powerful egos. Zika sums it up as “two roosters in one henhouse.”
The compromise was clever. Chelsea and Rennes agreed the transfer in January, but Cech would remain in France until the end of the season and Euro 2004. To protect all parties he was insured for a large sum against injury.
There was still one final wrinkle – a small gap in the valuation. From a ski resort in Austria, Zika suggested that Chelsea could help inaugurate Rennes’ renovated stadium with a friendly match, with all ticket revenues going to the French club. The idea helped tip the balance. The deal was signed; Cech would join Chelsea that summer.
On his first day at Stamford Bridge, the new signing walked through the stadium hotels and cafeteria, greeting future team-mates like Carlo Cudicini, Mateja Kežman and Arjen Robben. For Zika it was the satisfying culmination of years of planning, scouting and negotiation.
“I remember the first time we arrived at Chelsea. There are two hotels at the stadium and a dining room for the players. The first person we met was Cudicini, the goalkeeper. “Hi Petr,” he said – he was a big Premier League star, a fan favorite. Cudicini was fantastic, really.
“Then we got in the car, and I saw some future teammates—there’s Kežman, there’s Arjen Robben. “Hi guys,” and we went to the training center. Beautiful experiences that football brings.”
A transfer “like clockwork”: Martin Dubravka to Newcastle
Not every move is a saga. Asked for an example of a transfer that went unusually smoothly, Zika points to the January deal that took Slovak goalkeeper Martin Dubravka from Sparta Prague to Newcastle United – at the same time as Florin Nita moved from FCSB to Sparta.
“Everything was agreed,” he recalls. “The only question was how to do it logistically with the window closing the next day.” Both players were at winter training camps in Spain. Global Sports booked a private jet to bring Nita to Prague, while Newcastle sent their own plane for Dubravka.
Zika stayed in Prague to oversee the paperwork. With the midnight deadline approaching, there was little room for error. Both players landed, passed medicals and signed with only minutes to spare.
The detail he enjoys most is almost cinematic. Neither club had a new shirt ready, so each player signed his new contract wearing the old club’s training top. “Dubravka officially became a Newcastle player in a Sparta sweatshirt,” he laughs, “and Nita signed for Sparta in an FCSB sweatshirt. No one ever noticed.”
Beyond contracts: dogs, families and real-life problems
Stories like Dubravka’s illustrate what Zika sees as the agent’s broader job description. It often extends far beyond clauses and commissions.
Over the years he has helped ferry players’ dogs across borders, dealt with unexpected personal issues, even arranged lawyers in sensitive family matters. He has attended weddings, celebrated births and, occasionally, written apology letters after off-field incidents.
“I like challenges,” he says simply. “And I try to get along with every player – even the so-called bad boys.”
What it takes to be an agent today
Having lived through multiple changes in FIFA’s licensing system, Zika welcomes the recent return to stricter global regulation. He remembers the early days when agents had to deposit large financial guarantees at Swiss banks and pass oral exams in foreign languages at FIFA headquarters.
Later, when the system was decentralised and national associations began issuing intermediary licences, the number of agents exploded. In the Czech Republic alone there were around 270 intermediaries, more than there were players in the first league squads. “It was chaos,” he says.
Today the bar is higher again, with demanding online exams and additional courses for representing minors. Zika’s sons had to pass those new tests; many others did not. He believes that is good for the profession, as long as day-to-day reality recognises that each country and deal is different.
Financially, he notes, the market has settled around a loose standard in which agents often receive roughly one month of a player’s salary for each year of a contract, with variations depending on league and club.
“The real lords of football are the owners”
Despite the awards and influence that come with representing elite players, Pavel Zika resists the idea that agents themselves are the “lords of football.”
“We are important, because we represent players in negotiations and transfers,” he says. “But the real lords of football are the club owners. They are the ones who put their money in and decide the direction of the club.”
What he is sure of, though, is that he still loves his job. Officially retired by age, he continues to travel, watch games and brainstorm next steps with his sons. “I am lucky that my work is also my hobby,” he says. “And I tell players the same thing: you are one of the few people who can make a living from your passion. So focus on football now. The rest of life will come later.”
For Global Sports – and the Zika family – that shared passion has already produced one of European football’s most remarkable agency stories, from the terraces of Votice and the streets of Buenos Aires to Champions League nights at Stamford Bridge and roars on Tyneside.
