While the biggest European clubs spent years on transfers of football players, in which the figures were measured in billions of euros, those with limited financial power had a different and bigger challenge - either to discover talents, or to create them.
That's how, for example, Jude Bellingham from modest Birmingham reached Real and "cosmic" status through Borussia Dortmund, Lamin Jamal became the new superstar of Barca La Masia, Arda Güler won ten Fenerbahçe caps at the age of 17 before moving to Madrid. .
But, these are "extreme" cases, because the talent of those young men, like Vinicius and Rodrigo, who were signed by Real even before they reached adulthood, or the new prodigy Endrik, was known and clearly visible.
There are, however, many players whose potential is not that great, but is big enough to be able to play serious football, and they are under the radar.
This is what Romanian entrepreneur Adrian Docea was guided by, when he realized that he could take advantage of the huge potential - five billion football fans on the planet. Five billion people who know, or at least think they know the most beautiful game.
He created the Nordensa platform - a platform for financing football talents.
How does this start-up project work?
Football fans have the opportunity to support young players from developing countries to play for European clubs, and in return have a financial stake in the eventual future success of the players they support.
Fans can finance young footballers who have an offer from a club from Europe, and the funds will cover his salary and expenses for the first year of playing in that club.
This means that the club that brings a football player through Nordense for the first year has no financial obligations towards him, and if the player proves himself during that period and signs a contract, those who invested money in him (from 30 to 300 euros) will share a certain percentage for the next five years his annual salary, as well as part of a possible future transfer.
"We started thinking about how football is not fair for so many players around the world, because you always have to know someone who knows someone. "Football is conservative as an industry," Docea said.
"Another problem of football is the engagement of the fans, which is not as much as they would like. Fans want to have an impact on the game. They want to be a part of it. What they get is a remote control, betting odds, a scarf with the club logo, the luckiest can buy tickets, and it is not property. When we built Nordensa, we found a way to include them in the game”.
In a year and a half, Nordensa collected 1,6 million euros in a fund for financing young players, investors also appeared, and the process of scouting talents "that no one has heard of" is led and supervised by a powerful name in that world - Florian Bluhel.
Bluchel has been part of Arsenal's scouting service since December 2021, previously he did the same job at Bayern for almost a decade, and during that time he discovered Alphonse Davis in Canada, Jamal Musial, and Serge Gnabry, who was in the background at Arsenal.
"I absolutely believe in this project. I was impressed with the idea that every soccer player gets a chance to play professionally, as well as every soccer fan has a chance to earn some money as a soccer agent," Bluchel stated one reason for joining Nordensa.
The second, he says, was the opportunity to try to help players achieve their dreams and earn a decent living playing football.
“This summer we watched the Under-20 World Cup in Argentina and all the best players were under the watch of clubs like Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Bayern and the like. And these are not players for Nordensa, but what about a player from, say, the Dominican Republic? He might be good enough to join a club in Switzerland, Scandinavia or somewhere in Eastern Europe. Maybe not in the first league right now, but maybe in the second where he could still make a decent living and develop his potential. That's what drives me," says Bluchel.
Nordensa also identified the Montenegrin football market as very interesting, full of talents who, for one reason or another, often do not reach their full potential.
The Nordense app works by featuring players identified as talented by the scouting team.
In order to increase the chances of being successful, the selected players undergo interviews with Nordens team members and sports psychologists.
"Let's be honest, most agents don't focus on the player and his career. They look at how much they will earn from the player, what the potential bonuses are. It's different with Nordens, because we don't care where and in which club the footballer will play. We are here to let's connect the talents with the club and with the fans", confirmed Bluchel.
Last summer, Nordensa made its first fan transfer - 20-year-old Cameroonian Joseph Lendjok signed a two-year contract with Dinamo Tbilisi, and football fans from 21 countries invested a total of 18.000 euros in him. From his salary in the second year of the contract, he will receive a percentage in accordance with the role they played...
Nordens' project has already attracted the attention of clubs from Europe and even from Japan. Cooperation agreements were signed with Standard Liège, Zaragoza, Kawasaki, Dinamo Bucharest, Djerba... As well as with several football academies around the world.
Now Nordens' team is scouting for those clubs, with the help and support of the fans.
"I am amazed at how traditional football really is and how slowly things change. I think we can change that. There are some smart clubs that really change the game. We are not competitors to clubs or agents - we are a software company, an application - and we also have people who know what football is - so we can help change things," said Nordense founder Adrian Docea.
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