Age: 30
Job Title: Director of Legal with Vancouver Whitecaps FC
A pursuit of one of the more powerful hockey agents in the world would set up Manav Deol, then a University of Alberta MBA student, to not only form a relationship, but to also work for him. Deol had just attended a 2015 guest lecture from super-agent Ritch Winter.
“I just sort of chased him down a hallway after he spoke and gave him my elevator pitch,” says Deol, a former sports agent and lawyer.
Deol’s drive to get into the sports agency spawned after playing high-level soccer as a teenager. He moved onto the U of A and graduated with a Juris Doctorate in 2014 and his MBA in 2015.
In 2017, he joined Wintersports Ltd. Deol would wear many hats, from helping renegotiate contracts, to seeing what market would be a fit for a client.
Deol most recently moved on from Wintersports, taking a role in pro soccer with the Vancouver Whitecaps, but he takes pride in his accomplishments — not only as a younger person in the industry, but also as an Indo-Canadian from Edmonton.
“It’s a good feeling to tell them that I’m from Edmonton, and be able to represent the city. Whether I’m talking to people from Moscow or New York, L.A., it’s a good feeling knowing that Edmonton can go toe-to-toe with those cities.”
This article appears in the November 2020 issue of Edify
