Roger Federer is the ultimate champion in tennis. He’s won 20 majors and has earned over $100 million in prize money. That’s not counting the additional millions from endorsements, such as the ten year, $300m Uniqlo contract Federer signed in 2018 (at age 36).
Last year Federer earned approxiomately $106 million, about $100m from endorsements.
The now 39 year old Federer must have a terrific agent… Tony Godsick is the agent of Federer since 2005.
A New York City native Godsick got his start in the tennis industry as a 1992 summer intern with IMG, during his junior year at Dartmouth, where he played football. One day he was asked to assist Monica Seles, then the no. 1 ranked player in the world, who was playing an exhibition in Mahwah, NJ.
Seles and Godsick connected. In 1993, IMG offered the graduating Godsick a full time job as the day to day traveling manager for Seles. However that spring, Seles was stabbed in Hamburg, Germany and missed over two years of her career.
Godsick found a role with IMG in Cleveland and learned the business and eventually – by the age of 26 – began to manage three top ten players.
In 2005, Roger Federer had just won Wimbledon, his fifth major title, and was no. 1 in the world. Then managed by wife Mirka, Federer decided to listen to offers from agencies to manage his career. Referred by Seles, Federer eventually picked IMG and Godsick.
“I got a phone call a few days after that from (IMG boss Ted) Forstmann, saying, ‘Godsick, get down to my office, I just made your career,’ ” Godsick recalls.
“I certainly owe Monica a lot,” Godsick told Dartmouth Alumni Magazine earlier this year. “Monica got me my first job. Monica helped introduce me to Mary Joe Fernandez, and she encouraged Mary Joe and me to date (they later married). And, chapter three with Monica, it was Monica who helped me sign Federer. She’s a special person.”
Federer is quoted in the article: “Tony and I have been working together for more than fifteen years. We have developed a good sense of trust to make sure we are aligned with the same goals. It’s not about him and it’s not just about me. We have grown together. He understood how important the home market was for me, and it ended up being a great place for him to do business and also learn about who I am and where I love to live.”
“He understands how much my family and my tennis mean to me,” Federer says. “Without that, [our partnership] just wouldn’t survive after all these years. And the example of his character is the love he has for his family. He has worked so hard to make sure each of them is successful and know they are loved and protected. We have watched our families grow together, and his kids have developed into incredible people. To me, that is the biggest sign of the overall person that he is.”
Godsick departed IMG after nineteen years and started his own agency called Team 8 which has twenty employees and represents a small roster of athletes including hockey player Henrik Lundqvist, Coco Gauff and Juan Martin Del Potro. Godsick and Federer also created the hugely popular Laver Cup, a weekend tournament staged in different sites (Chicago, Prague, Boston this year) around the world each September after the US Open.
IMG · Laver Cup · Roger Federer · Tony Godsick · Uniqlo
