He is one of the most successful football players in the history of the game and Clarence Seedorf is hoping the traits which saw him make history, by becoming the first to win the European Cup with three different teams, can help him conquer the business world.
The Dutchman made his debut for Ajax at the tender age of 16, before enjoying successful spells with Sampdoria (Italy), Real Madrid (Spain), Inter Milan and AC Milan (both Italy), and Botafogo (Brazil), in a career that spanned three decades.
He lifted European club football’s top prize with Ajax, Real Madrid and AC Milan twice; winning the league title in every country in which he played.
Undaunted by turning out regularly in front of 60,000 football fans, Seedorf, who has called the UAE home along with his wife Sophia Makramati, for the last two years, is now using the strengths that saw him described as “one of Europe’s most complete midfielders of the last few decades” to forge an equally successful career off the pitch.
In an exclusive interview with Arabian Business, the 45-year-old, who is a qualified NLP coach, talked about handling the pressures associated with the sporting and business world.
He said: “What we have as athletes, the top ones, is a mindset that many in business don’t have because we needed to switch after a loss in just three days. Not a whole quarter, where you have the time to rebuild, you can take a few weeks to digest the bad quarter and then re-plan. We needed to do that for the next game.
“The next day you are on the pitch already and you are implementing the next strategy for the next match two or three days later. That gives you a certain flexibility to deal with disappointments, to deal with losses, to deal with setbacks.
“We are very driven by results naturally, but also, when the result’s not there, we don’t get depressed. We’re talking about those playing at the elite level. I remember those that I played with at that level, they all had it naturally and that’s why they could play there.
“As the pressure increases, the stress levels can go over-the-top and you get stuck. You see it in offices where they need to deliver or need to make sales. People get tight if you’re not trained to deal with stress every day. We had it every day. Every day you were judged by the coach whether you were going to play the next match or not.
“When I grew up with Ajax, every week we were expected to win the matches, and if we won 5-0 it wasn’t enough, you had to win 6-0 or 10-0 or 12.
“It’s part of our mindset. People in business have not gone through that necessarily so that flexibility isn’t there. But you can train yourself, especially the part of how you recover from the stress.
“We are just used to those pressure moments on a much more frequent level, so your brain adapts and we have that capacity to adapt.”
Unlike many in his profession, Seedorf got a headstart in the business world when he began studying while still wowing capacity crowds across the continent. He was referred to as ‘il professore’ (the professor) during his time in Milan after revealing in 2011 that he was studying to obtain a master’s degree in business at the prestigious Bocconi University.
He explained: “I just like to learn because I always felt something was missing. You start so early, I was 16 when I made my debut for Ajax, and I had other interests than football. I started doing some businesses but you understand, if you’re honest to yourself, you know that there’s some limited knowledge, when different people start talking about stuff, and I don’t like that. I want to know what they’re talking about.
“Simply, you have your lawyer, you have your advisor and all that, but then when they go into certain things, I don’t need to be a specialist, but I want to understand what they say. This was one of the motivations that I had to start studying management. I started with some general management, then finance and economics and it just gave a different perspective for me and structured a little bit in my mind and my conversations became different with the professionals around me.
“It doesn’t mean that you will do everything right, but at least I feel more comfortable in my growth as a business person.”
As it turns out, Seedorf carries as much prowess in the business world as he did on the football pitch. The father-of-four is the owner of sport management firm On International and renowned restaurant Fingers, which is located in Milan, Rome and Porto Cervo. He also owns a brand called MM with a lounge restaurant in Napoli and has a partnership with the largest horeca group in Alicante (Spain).
Seedorf announced earlier this month a partnership with UFC legend Khabib Nurmagomedov to launch the Seedorf Khabib Performance Club, under the banner of SK Sports Holding. The venture, which is headquartered in Dubai’s DMCC, is aimed at revolutionising football training, combining it with mixed martial arts (MMA).
“Of course I followed him (Khabib) with his career, the highlights, it was amazing. But the thing that really stood out is how he conducted himself, winning, in the arena, outside the arena, and when we met each other, it was instant and we started to talk about more than what the career was,” said Seedorf.
“He liked to talk about football and the names, so we enjoyed that, but our next more serious conversation was, what’s next? What are we going to do next? He’s about impact. He wants to do things for the next generation and he’s doing it for next generation; myself the same thing.
“This was actually a consequence of a lot of conversations that we’ve had. I already had this project in mind and so I made a call and he was in immediately.
“We’re not in a hurry, because this is really for the long-run. So it’s not just setting up things and selling the subscriptions, this is not the approach.”
The idea of giving back fits nicely with Seedorf’s whole ethos. He founded Champions for Children Foundation, in 2005, which is a non–profit organisation, with the goal to enhance the lives of children through sport. He is also one of six Nelson Mandela Legacy Champions in recognition of his philanthropic efforts and mission and related to this he founded Black Impact Foundation with the aim to build and sustain the global black community.
“For me, the real drive, even in business, is to have a positive impact on a global scale” he said. “That is why I wake up every day.”
And he is supported every step of the way by Sophia, a successful businesswoman in her own right and a pillar of the real estate industry in Toronto, Canada, for over 20 years. Sophia is also a Goodwill Ambassador for the Hothur Foundation, a diversified philanthropic organisation that aims to uplift the economically backward and tackle issues faced by women and society; and a Global Ambassador for the jewellery brand Scavia.
Seedorf said: “We believe we add value to each other for the things she knows and can do and things I know I can do. What we have in common is that life mission. We’re completely aligned, whether that’s on the philanthropy side or the business side and it makes the journey much easier and meaningful.”
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