Wikiake

About

Dr. Erkut Sogut (born September 17, 1980, in Hanover) is a British-German best-seller author, Sports lawyer, Sports Agent, lecturer (Adjunct Professor), and Philanthropist living in Los Angeles, California.

He has published two thriller novels as part of a book series set in the world of football/soccer and is the Agent for footballer Mesut Özil.

Early life

Dr. Erkut Sogut was born on 17 September 1980 in Hanover. His grandparents emigrated to Germany as the first generation of guest workers from Nevşehir (Turkey).

Career

Dr. Erkut Sogut grew up in Hanover and graduated from school in 2000 with a high school diploma. He began studying law at the University of Osnabrück in 2001 and passed his first state examination in Osnabrück. As a law student, he founded the German-Turkish Lawyers’ Association in Osnabrück and served as the association’s president for a year. During his studies, he completed a stay abroad at the Dokuz Eylül University in Izmir, Turkey. He worked in the German-Indian Chamber of Commerce in New Delhi (India) with a focus on arbitration and also worked in the Istanbul office of the German law firm Luther.

Following his two-year legal training at the Dusseldorf Higher Regional Court, he passed his second state judicial exam and gained the right to practice as a lawyer. He then completed a master’s degree in “German, Turkish, and International Business Law” and received a double degree from the Ruhr University in Bochum and the Istanbul Kültür University. He then began his doctorate in sports law under Wulf Eckart Voß at the University of Osnabrück. In 2013, while Sogut was working on his doctorate, he became the in-house lawyer at Özil Marketing GmbH in Düsseldorf.

Dr. Erkut Sogut himself played football in his youth and played for the Lower Saxony state. He is an FA-registered and FIFA licensed Football Agent. He is also registered as an agent with the World Basketball Federation (FIBA) and the German Ice Hockey League (DEL). Education is of great importance to Sogut, which is why he has specialized in the training and further education of Sports Agents. He also wants to combat the stigma attached to sports agents.

With this goal in mind, he has published the world’s first guide on how to become a football agent. After a great deal of interest in the world of football and by those interested in sports, the 3rd edition of the book was published with guest contributions from Özil, Kieran Gibbs, Daniel Geey, Pep Guardiola’s brother, Joachim Löw’s agent, and Leon Goretzka’s agent.

Dr. Erkut Sogut teaches internationally as a visiting professor at the Football Business Academy in Geneva and Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. In addition, he continues to give guest lectures on sports law and the work of Sports Agents at Harvard Business & Law School, UCFB Wembley, George Washington University, University of Southern California, Copenhagen Business School, Nigeria Law School, University of Ghana, University of Bayreuth and Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.

In 2018 Sogut became a part of the FIFA Agents Consultation Process, in which certain football agents and football officials discussed the upcoming FIFA guidelines for football agents. Since football agents are neither official stakeholders in the football industry nor have a global representative body, he founded the Professional Football Agents Association (PROFAA) in 2020, based in Zurich. In an article with ESPN, Sogut mentioned that PROFAA’s mission is to make football agents official stakeholders in the football industry. He was previously the Vice-President of the Professional Football Agents Association (PROFAA). Sogut left PROFAA in January 2022 after differences of opinion with the consultation process for the FIFA Football Agent Regulations that came into force in 2023.

Sogut launched his client Mesut Özil’s “M10” brand in 2015 and said in an interview with German journalist Raphael Honigstein that footballers themselves can be classified as brands. Sogut is responsible for the online channels of his client Özil with a total of more than 100 million followers on social media, making him the most-followed German footballer. The sports channel Spox and the sports conference Soccerex announced that in addition to M10 esports (for the FIFA game and Fortnite) and M10 Streetwear, the M10 brand would also produce Sportswear as well as its own M10 football boot.

Dr. Erkut Sogut played a key role in Özil’s nomination as an Official Ambassador of the 2018 FIFA eWorld Cup in London. Together with ex-soccer player Mathieu Flamini and Özil, Sogut is also co-founder and director at Unity, which specializes in sustainably packaged cosmetic products, among other things. His client Özil is the world’s first athlete with a digital avatar which was auctioned for a record sum of over €400,000. Sogut played a big part in this development, placing his client alongside artists like Rihanna, Justin Bieber, and Cardi B, who also have digital avatars.

Sögüt is also the managing director of the 39-Steps café chain, a joint venture with his client Özil. These projects are part of Sogut’s services for his clients, which is to plan “another career after football”.

In 2018 Sogut negotiated what was then the highest-paying contract in Premier League and Arsenal history, for Özil – making his client the top earner in the English Football League, earning £350,000 a week. According to various media sources, Sogut also manages Mesut Özil off the field. In the past, he was linked to Özil’s departure from the German national team.

As founder of the Erkut Sogut Academy, Erkut pioneers in educating the next generation of agents and has become a world-renowned keynote speaker, sports lawyer, lecturer, blogger, and book author, including two novels highlighting some of the biggest issues in football, as well as the three editions of How to Become a Football Agent. Sogut released his debut novel DEADLINE in March 2022, a crime thriller set in the world of football agents. The novel is about two rival agents that are competing to complete their respective deals with Manchester United. The stakes are high for both agents in this insightful high-octane story. In December 2022, Sogut published his second novel, ‘REMEMBER MY NAME’. This novel shines a light on the darker side of international football, by investigating the real-life links between African football academies and human trafficking into Europe.

Philanthropy

Dr. Erkut Sogut is on the board of the international charity BigShoe, which is dedicated to helping children in need globally. BigShoe has funded operations for over a thousand children in countries such as Brazil, India, Russia, and Sierra Leone. The operations are done by German surgeons.

In addition to BigShoe, Sogut is also a board member of the NGO Football For Peace, which is supported by the United Nations. The NGO’s mission is to use football to promote understanding between states and to use sport as a diplomatic tool for peace. Ambassadors for Football for Peace include footballers such as the late Pelé, Ronaldinho, Özil, Louis Saha, and Mathieu Flamini.

It was also revealed that during Özil’s time at Arsenal, Sogut invited children with terminal illnesses to his stadium box for every home game. Together with Özil, they received the children and their families at the Emirates Stadium and personally hosted them at football matches.

In 2016, Sogut organized a charity campaign with Özil where they visited the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, the world’s largest camp for Syrian refugees, at the invitation of Jordanian Prince Ali.

Personal Life

Erkut Sogut is married and has two children.