# The Man Who Changed Football: Jean-Marc Bosman and the ‘Bosman Law’
Who is the player who has had the greatest impact in world soccer history? Football fans frequently enough mention Pele (1940-2022) and Maradona (1960-2020) as answers to this question.
However, the person who changed the flow of world soccer history off the field is by far Jean-Marc Bosman (61, Belgium). This is because he, who was not widely known as a soccer player, led the era of free agency for European soccer players.
In 1990,Bosman attempted to move to Dunkirk in France after his contract with Liège of the Belgian league expired,but the move was canceled due to Liège demanding an excessive transfer fee.
Angered by the absurdity of European football’s right to retain players even after their contracts expired, Bosman won his freedom in 1995 after a five-year legal battle. Through this, all European soccer players were able to become free agents, meaning they could freely discuss transfers with other clubs starting six months before their contracts expired.
December 15th of this year marks the 30th anniversary of the enactment of the so-called ‘Bosman Law’, which freed European soccer players from the shackles of their clubs.
The Bosman Act even changed the landscape of the European soccer industry.This is as the transfer fees and salaries of soccer players who have secured the right to freely transfer to other clubs have risen vertically compared to the past.
After the Bosman Act was enacted, clubs began signing extension contracts that guaranteed large salaries before the contract expired in order to avoid losing star players to other clubs. the transfer fees for players have also skyrocketed as European soccer clubs have begun to seek astronomical amounts of transfer fees when sending such players to other teams.
Naturally, European soccer clubs had to spend more money on players. Meanwhile, the gap between small and medium-sized clubs and big clubs has widened further in the 21st century. Of course, as a player who grew up in a small club in Europe moved to a big club, small and medium-sized clubs were able to pocket the transfer fee. However, this was very small compared to the transfer fee exchanged between big clubs.this is because moast players who transfer from small clubs to big clubs are young and often receive relatively low transfer fees.
After the Bosman Act, European soccer became a huge industry, centered around big clubs that were able to attract world-class soccer stars based on their enormous capital power. This was the reason why a large amount of capital from the United states, Russia, and the Middle East flowed