Famous football agent Mino Raiola has died at the age of 54 after an illness, according to reports in Italy.
Rayola is a representative of stars such as Paul Pogba, Erling Haaland and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
His death has not yet been confirmed by his agency.
Rayola was hospitalized in Milan in January and underwent a very delicate operation, but the nature of the disease has not been revealed.
Reports said the condition was not life-threatening at the time and that Rayola would begin a period of rehabilitation at home.
The multilingual football agent has made his way from humble beginnings, working in a pizzeria to become one of the most influential figures in the world game, mediating mega-deals involving some of the most famous players.
He was representative of Pogba, Haaland, Ibrahimovic, Romelu Lukaku, Mario Balotelli, Marco Veratti and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
Forbes estimated last year that Rayola’s personal fortune was around £ 62 million.
Rayola reportedly earned as much as £ 20 million from the sale of Pogba from Juventus to Manchester United for the world record of £ 89 million in 2016.
Famous football agent Mino Raiola has died at the age of 54, according to reports
Rayola pictured with Manchester United and France footballer Paul Pogba (right)
The agent in the photo attended a Serie A football match in Italy last season
Summer was set to be busy for Rayola, with Pogba and Haaland expected to be on the move among his clients.
In the early 1990s, Rayola worked for Sports Promotions, a Dutch company, and facilitated the transfers of several high-ranking Dutch players, including Denis Bergkamp, to Italian clubs.
Rayola studied the methods of his colleagues to learn how to make such transfers himself, making additional photocopies of vital documents before negotiating the relocation of Czech star Pavel Nedved from Sparta Prague to Lazio in 1996.
Since then, Rayola has watched Ibrahimovic’s numerous transfers across Europe, as well as Balotelli’s move from Inter Milan to Man City in 2010 and his subsequent move to Milan.
He is known to have quarreled with United manager Sir Alex Ferguson before Pogba joined Juventus in 2012.
Rayola has watched some of the most lucrative transfers in world football in recent years
Rayola joked with Pogba before his transfer to Manchester United in the summer of 2016.
The story of Rayola
Mino Raiola was born in southern Italy before moving to the Netherlands as a baby, as his parents made a living from a sandwich shop, then a pizzeria and later a luxury restaurant.
He made his first move in the world of football administration when, at the age of 25, his company Intermezzo helped facilitate the transfer of Dutch international Brian Roy from Ajax to Foggia.
Rayola, who moved to Foggia to live with Roy for seven months, became close to Foggia manager Zdenek Zeman and soon began making contacts in the Czech Republic.
In 1996, when Raiola quickly became a rising star in the world of agents in Italy, he negotiated the transfer of Pavel Nedved from Sparta Prague to Lazio, then run by a close friend Zeman.
Slowly but surely, the Dutch-Italian agent became a key player and the meeting with Zlatan Ibrahimovic in 2001, then in Ajax, had a lasting effect on both.
They dined together at a Japanese restaurant in Amsterdam, and Ibrahimovic quickly urged Rayola to become his agent.
Since then, Rayola’s customer base has skyrocketed to names like Paul Pogba, Erling Haaland, Matjis de Ligt and Henrich Mkhitaryan among his stables.
In August 2016, Rayola was the one who negotiated Pogba’s transfer for the world record for £ 89 million at Manchester United.
Rayola reportedly received £ 20 million from the deal with Pogba, which allowed him to buy the former Miami home of the notorious American mafia boss Al Capone.
In 2019, Rayola won in the Federal Court of Appeal of Italy, after the FIFA Disciplinary Commission ratified the three-month ban by the Italian Football Federation for “undisclosed reasons.”
NATHAN SOL
Ferguson was unhappy with the way he believed Rayola had unjustifiably influenced the Pogba family to force the 19-year-old from Old Trafford in 2012.
“I didn’t trust him from the moment I met him,” said the United manager. “There are one or two football agents I just don’t like – and Mino Raiola is one of them.
“We had Paul under a three-year contract and he had a one-year renewal option that we couldn’t wait to sign. But Rayola suddenly appeared on stage and our first meeting was a fiasco.
“He and I were like oil and water. From (the first meeting) onwards, our goose was cooked because Rayola managed to fall in love with Paul and his family and the player signed with Juventus.
Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland is one of Rayola’s customers who will be on the move
But until the summer of 2016, he watched the moves of three players – Ibrahimovic, Pogba and Mkhitaryan – at Manchester United, all in the same window.
Rayola has reportedly collected £ 20 million from the deal with Pogba, which allows him to buy the former Miami home of the notorious American mafia boss Al Capone.
More to come.
The godfather of transfers: When Rayola lifted the lid on Pogba’s £ 89 million transfer at Man United to Sportsmail
BY SIMON JUNES
You have to have big balls to complete a world record transfer and Jose Mourinho has those balls …
Mino Raiola says it straight, as he likes. “It’s not just about spending money,” he insists. “It’s a responsibility to spend that money and say ‘yes, this is my man.’ Arsenal have the money, but do they have the balls?
“I respect Arsene Wenger. He has a philosophy that says these numbers don’t match what I want to do, so that’s OK. Real Madrid? Zinedine Zidane’s will was strong, but we weren’t sure it was the club’s will.
“Still, I think Manchester United have shown the world this summer that they will not stand still, they want to be the best.
“They sent a message with the transfers, which made it the biggest club in the world.”
Rayola is wearing a T-shirt and jogging pants, standing barefoot on the balcony of a towering new apartment building overlooking Chelsea Harbor. His teenage son shares his opinion.
We discuss his busy summer as an agent of some of the biggest names in football.
This is the man who secured the world record £ 89 million transfer for Paul Pogba to Manchester United and boasts a roster of clients including Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Mario Balotelli, Romelu Lukaku and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
He has made more than £ 30 million in deals this summer (including around £ 20 million from Pogba’s transfer), his players are sought after by the world’s biggest clubs, so what gave Manchester United and executive vice-president Ed Woodward an advantage ?
“I always tell my players that we are going where they are needed. United will always be one of the biggest clubs in the world, whether by reputation or balance.
“Yes, Manchester United did not have a Champions League and was not a champion, but they needed us the most.
“United have been talking to us for two years about Pogba,” Rayola confided.
“They had taken my player Sergio Romero and we kept the lines of communication open.
“We knew we were interested, we talked to Juventus, they really wanted to try for the Champions League, they gave him the number 10 shirt and we said we would give it another year.
“After that, I worked on a plan to go out. We had two offers from the Premier League and two from outside.
“Paul said United were at his heart, Woodward wanted him at United a year ago, and Mourinho also wanted him at Chelsea, so when we got together, we knew it was right.
“For the Real Madrid player it would have been easier, La Liga, the Champions League, but he wanted the bigger challenge.
“Mkhitaryan was more complicated. We had almost gotten along with another Premier League club, but Dortmund did not let him go, after which United transferred him.
“With Zlatan, he fits perfectly with the Manchester United brand. He is the personification of the fearless and has this winning mentality combined with class.
“He is 34, but he is the most talked about player in the Premier League. His reunion with Mourinho gives the feeling of “we are Manchester United, now come, try to fuck us”! ‘#
Being politically correct is not Rayola’s strength, he tends to be direct, a quality he attributes to his Dutch heritage, but instead of the fierce image that many take, he has ridiculous humor in what he presents.
“I love being in England when you ask someone, ‘How are you?’ They say, ‘Oh, it’s not that bad, I could be worse.’ What does this mean? I am Dutch, we say as it is. In the Netherlands we are either “good” or “bad”. It’s fun. ‘
Born in Italy, Rayola’s family moved to the Netherlands when he was a child. His father, a mechanic, retrained with the help of his grandmother to start the family’s restaurant business.
“I worked hard, cleaned dishes, waited at tables, was a bartender, but I’ve never baked pizza in my life – despite what I’ve written.”
The Italian in him is the basis of his strong family values and close ties with his players. Named by Forbes magazine as one of the most influential agents in the sport, he now spends valuable time with his son Mario.
“It’s nice to see my son,” says Rayola. “When he was little, I remember looking at Zlatan in awe.”
He imitates a little boy with an open mouth who slowly looks up at the sky to see a figurative giant.
“Zlatan drove it in his Ferrari. Now I see Mario more than before, I could barely see him grow, I would be absent.
“This is this life, you have to do the work to get here, to cover the kilometers. I like to go and talk in clubs, to meet everyone. We all have different methods.
To illustrate, he jokes about a stuttering man who sells more Bibles than his boss, simply threatening to read them to customers unless they buy.
The boss says, “What’s your secret?” I ring the doorbell and …
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