Inside the Wild Life of Footballers’ Luxury Assistants

This article originally appeared on VICE France.

First division football players live extravagant lives. With some elite footballers commanding salaries of tens of millions of euros, it’s no wonder many of them indulge in the finer things in life. But obtaining the best of the best can be work, too. That’s why they often hire luxury lifestyle management services, companies devoted to pampering them and assisting them in whatever they may need – like organising their holidays, for instance. 

“If it’s family time they’re after, we usually send them to an island,” says Jérémy Vosse, head of Premium Conciergerie, one of the most renowned agencies in this field. “For trips with buddies, we’re likely to suggest a hotel in Dubai or Los Angeles, or a villa in Miami.” Like influencers, footballers are especially fond of Dubai – an “obvious” spot to warm up in the winter, he adds.

To obtain these exclusive services, you first have to join the Premium FC club – a special membership at Premium Conciergerie – for about €4,800 a year. In exchange for this membership, Vosse guarantees your requests will be handled within five minutes.

The agency doesn’t just cater to footballers – it also has celebrities, business titans and other stupendously wealthy people among its clients. Vosse says most vacations tend to cost between €50,000 and €500,000. Whatever the price, the agency always pays for everything up front and then asks to be reimbursed. “Even a very expensive watch, we’ll pay for it ourselves,” he says. “The bar is very high – there’s almost nothing we’ll refuse, except maybe if a client wants an advance on a real estate property.” 

“Football players are teenagers with an unlimited budget,” explains Mickael Daya, founder of Élysée Conciergerie, an agency with deep-pocketed clients both inside and outside the football world. “One client ordered ten Playstation 5s when it came out — even though he had only six TVs at his house!” he says. “I asked if he was planning to give the others away, and he said, ‘No, it’s to have one on each TV and a few on display on the wall.’” When Daya suggested he just buy fakes for the display, his client said no – this way, if the main ones broke, he’d have spares.

But Daya also adds that footballers “tend to be more fearful, in our experience”, when compared to other clients. “Some are coming off bad experiences with other concierge services that scammed them when they were younger.” Not long ago, for instance, a player from a big European club told Daya he’d rented a vacation home he’d previously booked, except this time, the price had doubled. “The concierge service he was using was pocketing the difference,” Daya says. 

One thing footballers ask for all the time is food delivery. “It might seem odd, but it actually kind of makes sense – it’s not like you can order caviar on Deliveroo,” Daya laughs. One time, a footballer asked him to get two kilos of caviar and a private chef to make him mini-burgers while he was on the couch with his buddies.

The main challenge of the job? Putting together a network that can grant these types of requests in minutes. Responding to footballers’ demands can be a race against time. Once, Premium Conciergerie was asked to organise a whole wedding in just nine business days. “I had five people working round the clock every day,” Vosse says. But, in the end, “the client was super happy. It was very emotional and just magic!” 

Or take this example: Daya from Elysée Conciergerie once received a call from a footballer about a white party he wanted to attend. The problem? His Ferrari was blue, and he wanted Daya to find a way to turn it white. Within 96 hours. A paint job like this takes at least 72 hours – plus, you need to find a garage with the the right experience and insurance to handle the car. 

But, of course, when money is no object, solutions are easier to come by. “He went off to the party happy,” Daya recalls. “The next day, he called to tell me how amazing it was – but that now, we needed to take the white paint off.”

“Sometimes, the players are a little too good at kicking back,” says Philippe-Alexandre Alain of Elite Career Lifestyle. “For some of them, vacation means Ibiza, hookah, booze and neverending parties” – though he admits that’s not the case for everyone in the industry. Most of his clients actually don’t go for that kind of excess and take good care of their work instruments (read: their bodies). 

Vosse agrees, saying that his football clients are mostly serious guys. “We often send their coaches on vacation with them – that way, they can mix business and pleasure,” he explains. “In the morning, they train; in the afternoon, they have fun.” 

You might think of football players as 24-hour party people, but their profession actually demands a relatively healthy and disciplined life in between training, resting, dietary restrictions, sponsors’ obligations and media requests. “Most people don’t understand the sacrifices it takes to be them,” Vosse says. “Most of the time, they live like monks: super focused on their job and trying to do it well.”

Researcher Frédéric Rasera, who specialises in football sociology, was also quick to push back against the stereotype of the dumb football player blowing through money. Not all professional footballers are multimillionaires, he points out: “Honestly, this kind of luxury vacation is only for a small minority.” In fact, the sports publication L’Équipe estimated this year that the median gross monthly salary in France’s main league was about €40,000 – meaning that half of the players made less than that, and the other half more.

Besides, most footballers know they need to be smart with the money they’ll make in their short careers. “Just because they spend a lot on parties or vacations, doesn’t mean they don’t also make worthwhile investments,” Rasera says. “They have financial advisors to help them do that.” 

He also adds that many professionals in the field come from working-class backgrounds: “It’s extra important to them to be able to enjoy things, since in the past they’ve had to tighten their belts.”

A player’s humble origins often show up in their more extravagant requests. Alain once had to bend over backwards to find a way to get a dozen Big Macs and McNuggets delivered on an aeroplane. “A private jet and McDonalds – that’s not a pairing that works for most people,” Rasera comments.

Food isn’t the only fun thing players are interested in, of course. “We get some requests that would be immoral in the players’ home countries, even illegal – and, of course, we can’t grant those,” says one concierge who preferred to remain anonymous. “But there’s no rule against connecting people with a phone number.” 

Some destinations, like Dubai, are particularly famous for their high-end escorting services. “The problem in Dubai is, the girls just aren’t discreet. It’s super easy for the footballers to find them,” the source continues. “As soon as they walk into an upscale bar, out come the girls to offer a massage. And they brag about it way too much afterwards. Plus, the prices are crazy over there.” 

Another anonymous concierge says that he regularly receives these same kinds of requests – and that they often come from the players’ entourage. “Sometimes, you see a player’s brother leading more of a debauched ‘footballer lifestyle’, when the player himself is a pretty strict athlete,” they told VICE. 

As for Vosse, any request is more than welcome, but he really draws the line at anything illegal. “I’ll give them two warnings. After that, I’ll stop working with them.”