Tennis player Roger Federer has "joined with his longtime agent Tony Godsick and two American investors to form an agency called Team8," according to Christopher Clarey of the N.Y. TIMES. The company, based in the Cleveland area and headed by Godsick, will "represent the interests of Federer," but also "has signed one of Federer's main rivals," fifth-ranked Juan Martín del Potro. Grigor Dimitrov, a "rising 22-year-old Bulgarian" confirmed in an e-mail that "he would also join Team8, effective Jan. 1." That would give the new agency "a strong foothold in both the present and the future of tennis and would be a symbolic move for the 23rd-ranked Dimitrov, a player who was once nicknamed Baby Fed." Godsick made it "clear that the intent was not to create another big agency in the mold" of IMG. Godsick: "We're trying to be a boutique agency that will manage just a small stable of iconic athletes." He added that Team8 also was interested in "acquiring or creating events and in representing athletes in sports other than tennis, as well as entertainers." Godsick said that Federer would "be a client and not an active partner for now." But he added that the agency had "been created in part to give Federer a platform when he retires." Godsick said that he was "particularly interested in signing a leading golfer in the near term." The other investors are Ian McKinnon and Dirk Ziff (N.Y. TIMES, 12/12).
