When Soccer Is a Family Business

Jason Cairnduff/Reuters

The list in the files at the headquarters of England’s Football Association is peppered with surnames familiar to soccer fans: Rashford, Alexander-Arnold, Pulisic, Özil, Gundogan. But this is not a list of Premier League players. It is a list of the people who can represent them in negotiations.

Dane Rashford, the brother of Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford, is on the list. So are the brother of Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold, the fathers of Chelsea’s Christian Pulisic and Bournemouth’s Jordon Ibe.

In recent years, the number of family members acting officially as agents or intermediaries on behalf of professional soccer players in England has…