As a young player, I had to consider what opportunities my talent could open up.

The striker was born and raised in Northern Jutland, where he signed a contract with Aalborg Handball in 2013. After the 2018 season, where Aalborg became Danish champions, Simon Hald moved to Germany to try his hand in the German Bundesliga with SG Flensborg-Handewitt, where he is under contract until the summer of 2023. In his first season in Germany, he could add both "German champion" and "German Supercup winner" to his CV.

"I got in touch with People In Sport when I was about 17 years old. I negotiated my first contract myself, but I had actually had an ongoing dialog with their agent Kenneth Jensen from a young age. As a young player, I had to consider what opportunities my talent could open up. In this context, an agent is worth their weight in gold, as they can help you realize your potential as optimally as possible. When I turned 17, we put pen to paper, so to speak," says Simon Hald Jensen.

An agent can also better assess your value as a player to a manager, as they know the market, such as what other players are getting paid and what benefits are negotiable...

"It can be difficult for a young player to know their own value. And to have the big picture of the things that need to be included in a contract with insurance and everything that comes with it. An agent can also better assess your value as a player to a manager, as they know the market, such as what other players are getting paid and what benefits can be negotiated. This can be difficult to do as a young player, and their work frees up a lot of time so you can concentrate fully on delivering on the pitch," says Simon Hald.

How often do you engage with People In Sport?

"I speak with my agent Kenneth Jensen several times a month. Here we discuss how things are going athletically and the challenges I experience as a professional. When I was injured in 2019, I naturally took the conversations about rehabilitation with both my club and the national team, but People In Sport was also helpful with good advice and moral support and with what options I had. And I have also used them on an ongoing basis for sparring about long-term planning of my career and how I can use these good years to put something aside and secure myself for the future. Among other things, they have helped me talk to the right people about investments, education and job opportunities when my handball career comes to an end," says Simon Hald.

"From the start of our collaboration, we have jointly developed my career plan. As a youth player, I had a clear ambition to try to play in the tough German Bundesliga, and although it is clearly me who has to train and work on the pitch to realize the plan, it helps one's focus that from the start, common goals were set in our collaboration. I'm still very hungry to win more. For example, I would like to win the Champions League in handball, just as I hope to win more with the national team in the future," says Simon Hald.