The Blueprint Athlete Part 2

Part 2 - Athlete Beyond

Athletes as brands in the digital era

With sportive success comes popularity, and in the digital era, this signifies the presence in the media. Athletes have transformed into personal brands. This opportunity should be leveraged by employing different media channels to build the personal brand further. Some athletes hire agencies that control content production; others deal with social media independently. I advise establishing a small ?boutique style’ marketing and media network to enable high-end, individualised opportunities in the digital world. This means having less than a handful of trusted people who consult and support you with your positioning as an athlete brand and creating content for media channels while you sit in the driver’s seat. In the end, you are a personal brand, and it should align with you as a person with your values and visions; otherwise, you cannot have an authentic and sustainable long-term approach.

Building a brand off the pitch

In addition to the personal brand, athletes should utilize opportunities to build a brand outside the sport. As a successful athlete, you bring three aspects that put you in an excellent position: media value, capital, and the experience of succeeding in a highly competitive environment. Paired with specific knowledge and passion, this provides a rock-solid foundation for more. In which direction you want to use your capacities depends on your interests and abilities.

I like seeing athletes getting involved in projects, fashion, ventures, foundations, and businesses - just being brave and thinking ‘outside the box of soccer’ - because there is more to it than being an athlete.

Of course, there are a lot of possibilities and paths to go, but you can not have it all at once.

I like seeing athletes getting involved in projects, fashion, ventures, foundations, and businesses - just being brave and thinking ‘outside the box of soccer’ - because there is more to it than being an athlete.

Athlete & Business Angel

I chose to become an investor and business angel. As an athlete, I like seeing driven and hungry people and teams wanting to change ?something’ and being relentless, as it reminds me of myself and the high-performing soccer environment. Backing early-stage startups provides access to innovations and technologies with transformative potential. In addition, I think creating a different perception of investing in general is essential - especially in Germany and Europe. Depending on your strategy, working with managed VCs and PE funds with specialized knowledge and expertise might make sense. A team and valuable information is crucial; I recommend creating an individual network of founders, business angels, managers, and consulting investment experts to assess all kinds of investments.

If you want to get more involved and allocate more time and energy to something, you may become a founder yourself. Identify the need for a product or service and address it with your own company. It cannot be done alone but requires a team of trusted people who bring expertise and execution, but it might be worth exploring. In the end, athletes nowadays have a unique chance to leverage their potential and expand to different fields. But this choice should be well thought out. Because when it pans out, it opens a path for the time after the professional career.