Paul Dalglish pledges to focus on developing talent after launching new agency

Paul Dalglish, the son of Liverpool great Sir Kenny Dalglish, says he is focused on developing talent rather than moving players like estate agents sell houses after co-founding an agency.

The 47-year-old enjoyed a varied playing career before moving into coaching in the United States and Canada, most recently as manager and technical director of Miami FC.

Dalglish left the club at the end of 2021 and a catch-up with old school friend Ben Mawson in Florida a few months later sparked the idea for a new sports agency.

TaP23 has now been official launched by the barrister turned renowned music manager Mawson and Dalglish, with the pair believing they offer something different in a saturated market.

“It would have been quite easy for Ben and I to have stayed in our lanes,” he told PA. “I was enjoying a successful career over in America after I finished playing, coaching and being the president of a club. Ben obviously in music.

“But we genuinely felt that there was a gap in the market, a full service football agency.

“Although there’s a lot of good agents out there and there’s a lot of organisations that say they are full service, very few in reality actually are.

“We want to get away from clients thinking that they have an agent. They have a management team.

“I think what’s kind of been the case in football has been almost like an estate agent where players get your move but then the actual day-to-day service doesn’t exist too much after that.”

Dalglish believes on the football side he is “about as qualified as you can be” to help develop players’ careers, given his playing experience, Pro Licence coaching background and agency qualifications.

As for Mawson, he is singer Lana Del Rey’s manager and has helped guide the careers of pop stars like Dua Lipa and Ellie Goulding.

“It’s about looking after a human being, and all human beings are different, and they all require different things,” TaP23 co-founder Mawson said.

“Whether it’s music on the stage or football on the pitch, there’s that performance piece that’s important to be doing at the highest possible level.”

It is that platform for potential to thrive that Dalglish is looking to help bring into football.

“Whether it’s vocal training, dance lessons, bringing in a stylist, whatever you need to do to improve the performance of that individual, it’s done,” he said of the music world.

“Whereas in football that doesn’t exist. A lot of people are managing footballers don’t have any plan to improve the level of the performance on a pitch.

“They don’t have any background in football to be able to give that advice, or they don’t have even career planning.”

Dalglish’s father Kenny has joined TaP23 as a founder client and ambassador who will sit on the board in a non-executive advisory role.

Paul added: “If you look at my career, I’ve gone from playing in the Premier League to playing in League Two and it was all because of me and I can explain why and the consequences of action.

“Most people in football get what they deserve, and it’s what you’re willing to put into it that determines what you’re going to get out of it.

“Being able to guide players from experience, you’re not just someone who’s guessing what it’s like. You’re someone who’s lived it and you can show people the highest highs and the lowest lows.”