My dad is Scotland’s best ever footballer but I’ve got a totally different job

WHEN your dad is one of the best footballers Britain has ever produced, it’s safe to say you might know a thing or two about the livelihood of a top player.

So what better way to utilise your skills than being a top agent?

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That’s exactly the world Paul Dalglish is stepping into.

Paul is the only son of Celtic and Liverpool legend Sir Kenny Dalglish, who earned 102 caps for Scotland and remains the country’s joint-record goalscorer with 30 goals.

Sir Kenny became player-manager at Anfield before becoming a full-time boss there and had further success in the dugout with Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle.

Paul was signed by his father at Newcastle but his own footie career never reached the dizzy heights of his old man – who delivered a hilarious one-liner in reference to that during Paul’s wedding day, no less.

After stints with Norwich City, Blackpool, Livingston and Hibernian with varying levels of success, Paul decided to head to the USA with Houston Dynamo where he was part of a squad that won two MLS Cups in 2007 and 2008.

After hanging up his boots he went into coaching and won trophies as a manager in the second tier of football in the states. Paul also stepped into the upper echelons at some of these clubs, acting as president of Miami FC, general manager of Ottawa Fury and technical director of Austin Aztex.

In 2022 he joined TaP Sports as a consultant and a year later he co-founded TaP23, branching off from the original TaP brand name.

Paul launched TaP23 alongside friend Ben Mawson, who runs one of the UK’s biggest music talent management firms with the likes of Ellie Goulding, Lana Del Rey and Mabel on the books of TaP Music.

Since starting the company they have gone on to sign some big names to their roster.

The two most familiar names to Scottish football fans will be Nathan Patterson, the former Rangers academy graduate who is now starring for Everton and Scotland, and Liam Scales, a mainstay of the Celtic defence over the last two years.

Since his move to Real Madrid, TaP23 have also linked up with global star David Alaba.

Paul revealed that he has plans to work with talent beyond just footballers.

He told the FC Bullard podcast: “I partnered with my mate from school, Ben Mawson, who founded TaP music.

“He has been working with Lana Del Rey from before she was well-known and Dua Lipa as well, he worked with her.

“He’s taken the approach of, everyone’s a human being. So he’s taking human beings from unknown to global superstars and the journey that you go on to do that.

“And then from my perspective, I’ve got my pro license. So I see myself as an agent being able to sit down with the player after a game and go ‘Here’s where you can improve’, independent advice from the club.

“So our aim is to try and create a full service agency. That’s what we’ve tried to do, but it takes time.

“So obviously we’re going to do more than football.”

With TaP23 still in its relative infancy, Paul is working on growing their list of clients – just, not by too much.

Paul insists that in order to foster the best relationship with their clients, they can’t have a pool of 20-odd players because their service would be diluted.

He said: “I say we’re the best football agency no one’s heard of yet, because at the end of the day, you’ve got to prove it.

“You know, we can have a concept but until you do it, you need someone to believe in you. Someone needs to say, do you know what, that resonates with me.

“We also don’t want to be big. I don’t think I can do my job properly and give it the attention it needs if you’ve got too many players.

“So every player that I bring in, I want to be a priority.

“To be honest with you, if you’re going to do it right, you can’t do it how you want to do it.

“If you’ve got 25 players, you can’t watch their games every week.

“We’re set up to look after elite players and make them a priority. So I’d rather have a handful of top, top players.

“And because I come from a youth development background as well, I love the idea of getting a top, top kind of 17, 18-year-old and going on a journey with them.”

In terms of the name, Paul revealed that there’s actually nothing particularly special or deep about using the number 23.

“We thought 23 was quite generic sport name,” he said.

“We thought to recognise what Ben’s done We used the name TaP and then we needed a sports reference, so we just thought 23 had a little ring to it.”

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