These terms are often used in relation to professionals who assist soccer players, and sometimes coaches or clubs. But what do they mean, and what are the differences between them?

In everyday usage, all of the above terms are correct, and in this sense, the four concepts essentially mean the same. However, as we will see below, from a professional point of view, there are slight differences in the meanings of the individual words.

A football agent (or player agent, or player manager) is essentially a sports professional who deals primarily with legal and economic issues and who negotiates (or modifies or termination) and in the negotiation process (as well as in matters outside the field of play) and provides representation for their clients, who are mostly players. We will discuss the question of what exactly a football agent does in more detail later in this article.

It should be noted that the relevant legislation does not apply these terms consistently, and various articles on economics and sports often use them interchangeably as synonyms. Our current sports law and related regulations at the decree level basically use the term "player agent" (also because it establishes rules not only for football but for spectator team sports in general), although there are no restrictive rules preventing coaches, clubs or associations from entering into agreements with agents or managers for the provision of such services. Furthermore, the relevant regulations of FIFA and the MLSZ (Hungarian Football Association) use more general, broader terms - refer to football agents and - although this is less common in practice - expressly provide for the possibility for agents or managers to enter into contracts with coaches, clubs or associations for the provision of agency or management services. Accordingly, we can generally refer not only to player agents, but also to football agents, using a more comprehensive and broader term. Consequently, the concept of a soccer agent (or manager) covers a broader range than that of a player agent (all player agents are football agents, but not all football agents are player agents), However, this distinction has no practical significance (given that agents represent players in the vast majority of cases), and as a result, the terms football agent, player agent, and player manager are often used interchangeably.

In our entry, we will also use these terms alternately, but they will refer to the same concept (football agent). Furthermore, when we refer to the term player agent, we also mean football agents who represent coaches, clubs, or associations (where it is not clear from the context that they represent only players). clubs or associations (where the context does not clearly indicate that the activity is limited to representing players).

The term "player agent" was previously in widespread use, essentially prior to the introduction of the new licensing system created by FIFA, and was also used in the former regulations of the Hungarian Football Association (MLSZ) to refer to football agents. However, this term has now virtually disappeared from related terminology.