Freshly Signed

There’s good and bad football news coming out of Botswana this week. We have the Vice President of the Footballer’s Union of Botswana back in the Freshly Signed Show hot seat. Lesego Molemogi talks to us about how Botswana pro football has eventually been given the green light after a hiatus of more than a year, but why it is still not all plain sailing. Fat players and contract issues along with a long-running feud between the FUB and the Botswana Football Association continue to hamper the careers of professional football players in that country. 

It is not all bad news though, the Women’s football game continues to grow from strength to strength and Lesego explains why this makes him excited about the future of Botswana Women’s Football.

Brought to you by Sports Law Africa

This week on the Freshly Signed podcast we chat to Karl-Henry Edström, a publisher who has been working with HNWI’s (High Net Worth Individuals) for decades, publishing Hotelier International and The Robb Report amongst others. These High End magazines are aimed squarely at this exclusive market. Karl-Henry has some great advice for our football player listeners who may have just broken through this transfer season. He chats to us about watches, yachts and private aircraft, and how newly wealthy footballers like you can save money and still enjoy the rewards that come with rising stardom. Take a listen.

Brought to you by Sports Law Africa

It’s a wrap! We chat with sports lawyer and agent Enrico Benvenuto as the Italian football season draws to a close. On the table are topics like Italy’s new tax amendments which are a big boost for players, the great work he is doing to give African players from Ghana, Cameroon and Botswana a shot at playing for one of the Italian lower division clubs and how Italian football is clawing its way back from Covid. Enrico is a truly international sports lawyer, he has studied in New York, Rome and Spain and has represented clients across the globe. His insight into Italian football opportunities will be very interesting to our Freshly Signed audience. Take a listen.

Brought to you by Sports Law Africa

Swedish Ex footballer-turned-events creator, Thomas Sunesson has good advice for pro athletes looking to grow their personal brand, attract sponsors and most importantly keep them happy. His advice also flies in the face of our own advice a little. Where we preach to our freshly signed audience about taking great care not to be too controversial, lest our players find themselves in conflict with their sponsors messaging, Thomas has a different take. His advice is for players to have something to say, even if it is a little controversial. Take a listen to this episode and see if you agree with him that players who do not have anything to say fade into the background.

He has a point. If you’re not being noticed why would a sponsor be interested in you endorsing their brand ? It’s a very fine line though, being noticed for the right reasons or losing the respect of fans as F1 rookie Nikita Mazepin found after he posted video of himself groping a girl in the back seat of a car he was driving in.

Take a listen to what Thomas has to say here and check his consultancy in Stockholm, LWTS Kommunikation.

Brought to you by Sports Law Africa Magazine

Rynard ‘Ligtoring’ Landman talks to us this week from his hotel room, just hours ahead of a crunch league game. He speaks about his pro career, playing in the ultra-competitive French Pro D2 league, and life as an expat professional rugby player. 

Rynard was having a cracker of a game back in his Cheetah’s Super Rugby days when unknown to him, a scout was watching from the stands. Shortly afterwards he landed in the UK with a contract in his pocket and his new wife by his side. Listen as he tells how he had just two weeks to find his feet and how he ultimately ended up plying his trade in beautiful Carcassone in the South of France. 

Rynard offers advice to newly pro players keen to play abroad and offers great insight into the French rugby culture. Enjoy this week's show.

Brought to you by Sports Law Africa Magazine

Take a listen to Linos Chalwe, the driving force behind player welfare in Zambian Football. Linos has played pro football all over the world and has seen firsthand how a lack of financial literacy has impacted players in that country. He co-founded the Football and Allied Workers Union of Zambia and is passionately driving player welfare, particularly post-career. He is also keen to shine a light on Zambia’s undiscovered talent and is positively bursting with pride at the recent qualification of the Zambian women’s side for the Tokyo Olympics. He also explains why most of Zambia is suddenly supporting Scottish football. Take a listen to this week's Freshly Signed.

Brought to you by Sports Law Africa Magazine

Football in Botswana is in disarray. The Botswana Football Association’s answer to COVID? Cancel the entire 2020 / 2021 season. Players have left the city in despair, many heading home to their families who are also dependant on their incomes. 

While the rest of the world, and seemingly every other industry in Botswana, is slowly finding a way to resume operations, football in that beautiful country is receiving no love at all. Worse, the custodians of the game, the Botswana Football Association, seemingly have no interest in meeting with stakeholders to work on a plan. 

In this episode of Freshly Signed we chat with the Vice President of the Footballers Union of Botswana, Mr. Lesego Molemogi who explains the issues at hand. He ends this interview with an impassioned plea for players not to lose hope. Take a listen.

Brought to you by Sports Law Africa Magazine

Welcome to our BEST and WORST podcast ever. 

BEST because we think we’ve found the smartest sports lawyer in all of Italy, and WORST because weather related transmission issues caused havoc with our remote interview. We welcomed Lucio Mazzei to Freshly Signed on Wednesday night and we had just one question for him “what the hell happened this week!” 

Lucio is a super talented Sports Lawyer who has worked and studied around the globe. He has a Master’s in sports law, earned in Madrid, he studied law in Milan, earned more sports law qualifications in Montevideo, Uruguay and Cambridge UK for good measure. 

With all these qualifications and post graduate courses you would think he would know a lot about sport, and you’d be right! 

Especially football. You’ll hear his passion for the beautiful game come through his voice despite the connection. This episode is really worth a listen, so push through the sound quality if you can.

We should call it ‘The Super League Fiasco that went sour quicker than fresh milk left outside your fridge’.

Brought to you by Sportslawafrica

Could the best job in sport not even be on the pitch? Andrés Fernández thinks so. And he may just be right. 

Who is Andrés Fernández and why should you listen to what he has to say on this week’s Freshly Signed? 

To answer the first question: Andrés is the Deputy Secretary-General of the Spanish Motorsport Federation, and also as a part of their legal team. To answer your service question, Andrés, who has seen his fair share of hardship in his native Venezuela, has a word of advice for our Freshly Signed pro athlete listeners: SAVE NOW WHILE YOU CAN! 
Actually, that’s five words. And he talks about second careers for sports pros. 

His #1 recommendation? Become a sports lawyer, naturally! Andrés makes a lot of sense though. If you can play club or varsity football or rugby (or any other sport) and snag a law degree before you hit the big leagues, you’ll retire from sport one day and step into a perfect career as a sports lawyer. Or, if you are a petrolhead motorsport enthusiast, but you haven’t won the birth lottery and can’t afford to race (it’s expensive man, and many drivers actually pay-to-play with sponsorships or rich parents) then immersing yourself in motorsport by being a specialist sports lawyer has to be the next best thing right?

 Take listen to Andrés now and share this episode with your motorsport-loving friends. 

Brought to you by SportsLawAfrica

This week on Freshly Signed we chat with Scottish ex professional rugby player and coach Stuart Corsar of Big Rig Rugby.  

He tells first hand how a lifetime of concussion injuries is still taking its toll on his quality of life. Stuart is using his unique understanding and passion for rugby to coach both boys and girls teams in northeast Scotland. 

If you’re a rugby player, or you care about a rugby player, you’re going to want to listen to this weeks podcast.

Brought to you by SportsLawAfrica