Around 5 years ago, Lebanese-Swedish football agent and manager Peter Khalife founded Superior Squad Sports Management (SSSM), one of the world’s largest youth agencies today.
Growing up, Peter became an avid fan of the sport early on, and he started to play at the age of 7.
Born in Limassol, Cyprus, on January 29th, 1990, he gained a Swedish passport soon after his parents, who hail from Mayfouk in Byblos and had emigrated to Cyprus in the same year, moved to Sweden shortly after Peter’s birth.
Driven by his undying passion for football, the young fan grew up to become a professional player, playing in Sweden and Lebanon for a short stint before entering the business of agencies and scouting.
But, as much as he enjoyed playing, his experience as a young player searching for his place in the massive football industry was not all positive.
As a player, Peter lost a lot of money on people and opportunities that turned out to be frauds and scams.
For this reason, when he became an agent and a scout, he focused on young players, and he helped them free of charge to direct them toward the right path to reaching their goals.
Maintaining this focus, he established his professional football agency, Superior Squad Sports Management (SSSM), in 2015.
“Not many agencies in the world focus a lot on youth players. So, I wanted to try to be different in a way that focuses a lot on youth instead of just taking them when they are ready,” Peter told The961.
Through a special pathway that he created, called Superior Squad Academy, he scouts players at the age of 10 and helps them develop until they reach SSSM at the age of 16, after which they are guided toward becoming professional players.
He started in Lebanon with three 10-year-old players during the summer break in 2015.
“One player led to another and they started growing up and got recruited to professional teams. So I tried to implement the system in other countries by sending every federation and club presentations of my project but got rejected a lot.”
Eventually, Cyprus opened up to Peter’s idea, and he has never looked back since.
“After successfully implementing the system and placing players in the youth league with top clubs, I expanded to other countries such as Australia, Egypt, Holland, Spain, Canada, USA, Nigeria, and others,” he explained.
Later, as SSSM grew, it appointed ambassadors and scouts to represent it in various countries around the world.
“Now we lead a market with over 20 ambassadors and more than 50 scouts and agents under the umbrella of SSSM, representing more than 500 youth players playing in top youth leagues.”
In addition to managing player careers, scouting, and organizing Talent Identification Camps around the world, SSSM represents international managers and organizes coaching seminars for the least developed countries.
