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Entities/Layer 05 · Agencies/CAA Stellar
L5 · Agencies · Player representation agency· Los Angeles · London

CAA Stellar

Creative Artists Agency's 2020 acquisition of Stellar Group created the largest player-representation agency in football. ~750+ roster across men's, women's, and coaching, with parallel football executive-search practice. The agency-layer category leader.

Type
Multi-sport agency
Founded
Stellar 1992; CAA acquisition 2020
Headquarters
Los Angeles · London
Leadership
Bryan Lourd (CAA Co-Chairman) · Jonathan Barnett (Stellar Founder, advisory)
Scale headline
~750+ represented players
Posture (2026)
Roster expansion · executive search build
At a glance

The category leader

CAA Stellar is the football-representation arm of Creative Artists Agency, formed when CAA acquired Stellar Group in October 2020. The combined platform represents approximately 750+ players across men's and women's football, plus a substantial coaching and executive-search roster. The agency is the largest in football by combined roster size and disclosed transfer-fee involvement.

The strategic logic of the acquisition was scale and cross-sport integration. CAA's broader sport practice already covered NBA, NFL, MLB, and adjacent talent. Stellar Group's football-specific roster — including a large share of Premier League talent and structurally embedded relationships with European clubs — added the missing top-tier football property.

The numbers

Scale and structure

Agency type
Multi-sport, multi-discipline agency. Football roster covers player representation, coaching/manager representation, executive search, and brand/commercial activation.
Source · Disclosed
Parent group
CAA (Creative Artists Agency). Privately held; majority owned by Artémis (Pinault family) following 2023 acquisition.
Source · Disclosed · Reported
Roster size (football)
Approximately 750+ represented players across men's and women's football. Coaches and manager roster materially smaller but high-profile. Senior football-executive search practice represents 50+ active C-suite searches.
Source · Reported · Estimate
Marquee clients
Players: Gareth Bale (historic), Jack Grealish, Saka, Bellingham (selectively), and a dense Premier League and Championship roster. Coaches: Pep Guardiola (selectively), Mikel Arteta (selectively), and senior coaching staff across European football.
Source · Reported
Geographic footprint
Offices in London, Los Angeles, New York, plus selected European outposts. Primary recruiting markets in UK, continental Europe, North America, and increasingly MENA.
Source · Disclosed
Disclosed revenue
Football-specific revenue not disclosed. CAA Group revenue runs into the multi-billion across all divisions; football share material but a sub-component.
Source · Reported · Estimate
Notable transfer involvement
CAA Stellar represents either buyer or seller side on a substantial share of Premier League transfers; precise market-share figures not publicly disclosed.
Source · Reported
Leadership
CAA Co-Chairman: Bryan Lourd. Stellar Founder: Jonathan Barnett (advisory role post-merger). Football division head: senior partner architecture across CAA Stellar's London and LA offices.
Source · Disclosed
Regulatory exposure
Operating under FIFA Football Agent Regulations (FFAR) framework, with ongoing national-court litigation in Germany, England, and Netherlands affecting cap and licensing structure.
Source · Disclosed · Reported
Strategic posture (2026)
Roster expansion. Continued senior-talent recruitment. Executive-search build. Football C-suite placement practice continuing to develop. Women's football diversification.
Source · Reported
Operating reality

What the institution actually does

CAA Stellar's operating model is the most centralised in football agency. The combined platform integrates representation, executive search, brand/commercial activation, and the broader CAA cross-sport network. Senior partners cover specific player and coach books with global-platform support across legal, commercial, and operating execution.

The post-2020 integration phase produced material roster consolidation as some senior agents moved between firms, but the combined platform's scale advantages — relationship density at top European clubs, capital backing for relocation and signing-bonus programmes, and the cross-sport platform — have established CAA Stellar as the structural category leader.

The FIFA Football Agent Regulations framework remains the principal regulatory question. The 2024 national-court rulings in Germany, England, and the Netherlands partially overturned FFAR's caps and licensing structure, producing regulatory fragmentation that benefits the largest, most legally resourced agencies — CAA Stellar prominent among them.

Strategic posture

Direction in 2026

CAA Stellar's stated direction in 2026 is roster expansion, executive-search build, and women's football diversification. The Premier League book remains the platform's anchor; Champions League-tier continental Europe roster continues to expand. The executive-search practice is increasingly placing senior football C-suite roles at top European clubs and at MCO group platforms.

Women's football is the highest-growth roster segment. CAA Stellar's representation of senior NWSL and WSL players is expanding rapidly, with commercial-activation packages structured similarly to Roc Nation Sports's brand-first model.

Sources