Career advice from FIFA's Marketing Director, Thierry Weil

23/03/2012

Thierry Weil, FIFA's Marketing Director recently attended the Barcelona Global Sports Forum to participate in a panel entitled ¨The Globalization of Brand Sponsors¨. 

During his intervention he stated the importance of finding partnerships that are beneficial to both the rights-holder and the sponsor in order to have long-term success in any commercial relationship. As far as specific examples, Weil spoke about the positive impact that brands such as KIA and Hyundai have had on a global scale because of their partnerships with FIFA over the past years.

Weil has a lot of experience in this area, having been a top sports marketing executive for Adidas during many years prior to being named FIFA's Marketing Director in 2007.

After the session, MotivaGoal had the chance to speak briefly with Weil and ask him for some professional advice about breaking into the sports marketing industry. He gave us some interesting pointers, and particularly stressed the importance of persistence and hard work in order to achieve your final goal in such a competitive industry. 

Our interview is included below:

Diego Valdés – MotivaGoal - What is your advice to those looking for a career in sports management or sports marketing?

Thierry Weil – FIFA - I would say that you first must love the job you do and always be a hard worker. It is also important to have a lot of respect for your work and for the people you are working with. In the end a lot comes down to having respect. And then the rest is all up to working hard.  

If you enjoy every day the job you do, like I do, nothing better can happen to you. And if you work in the sport you like and you have a lot of people around you that you enjoy working in the same environment, just remember to keep working hard. A lot of people are in too much of a hurry to move up too quickly. Give yourself time and respect everything that you do and all those you work with, and if you do, you will see the results later down the road. 

Diego Valdés – MotivaGoal - What has been your journey to becoming the Marketing Director for FIFA?

Thierry Weil – FIFA - You wouldn´t have enough tape to record my story! (Laughs) It has been very long, but I just applied what I told you.  Being patient in the job, liking what you do and if you don't like what you do, changing it.  However, if you like what you do and then you go and you work with respect, that usually takes a lot of people to where they want to be. 

Diego Valdés – MotivaGoal - What about persistence? A lot of people get discouraged early on as they don't see the results of their efforts right away…

Thierry Weil – FIFA - Again, hard work. I can't stress that enough. It pays off in the end even if you might not see it immediately. And persistence and believing you can do it.  In order to achieve anything in life, you must put in the work first.  Through hard work you can get very far. 

Diego Valdés – MotivaGoal – Thank you very much, Thierry.  We appreciate your time and hope to speak with you again during future events.

Thierry Weil – FIFA - No problem.  It has been my pleasure.  Good luck.

Diego Valdés Rendón
Editor, MotivaGoal
Twitter: @motivagoal

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