Mino Raiola
Agent to the superstars making headlines once again
He is arguably one of the most powerful men in world football, yet most fans would probably find it hard to identify him. His family were immigrants from southern Italy to Netherlands when he was a baby, yet nowadays he controls a global football players agency worth anything up to €50 million or more.
He is, of course, the 53-year-old “super” agent Mino Raiola, a man whose current book of megastar clients includes Paul Pogba, Gianluigi Donnarumma and Zlatan Ibrahimovic to name but three. The thing about Raiola, though, is that not everybody in the trade likes him.
For many, he is the embodiment of that modern trend which would have us believe that big transfer fees and financial considerations have eliminated the romantic heart of football. For others, he is a supremely capable agent who does a great job for his clients, no matter how many delicate feathers he has to ruffle.
One club that has come to know Raiola well, for better or for worse, is Manchester United. Right now, United fans must feel like they are looking at one of their old movies. In 2012, as agent to a very promising youthteam player, Paul Pogba, Raiola masterminded a free transfer for the then 18-year-old Frenchman to Italian cracks Juventus. Four years later, United bought Pogba back for £89 million.
Club manager at the time, the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson, felt that Raiola had “robbed” United of their talented youngster. Subsequently, he made no secret of his poor opinion of Raiola, writing in a 2015 book: “There are one or two football agents I simply do not like and Mino Raiola, Paul Pogba’s agent, is one of them. I distrusted him from the moment
I met him.”
Right now, however, it looks like it is happening again. Current United manager, Norwegian Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, was distinctly unimpressed when Raiola told Turin-based sports daily, that Pogba was unhappy at United, implying furthermore that he might return to Juventus at the end of the season.
Worse still, these comments were made on the eve of United’s vital, last day Champions League group clash with German club RB Leipzig, a game they lost 3-2 to crash out of the competition. Solskjaer commented bitterly the next day that “Paul’s agent” should “realise that this is a team sport and that we work together”.
“The guy should never be dealt with again by this football club,” said former Red Devils captain Gary Neville on Sky Sports. “They can’t go and sign another player with that agent. They cannot do that – enough is enough.”
Will we see a repeat of 2012? Not necessarily. There is no doubt that Pogba was highly valued by the club during his Juventus years (2012-2016). Yet Turin sources suggest that, in these
COVID times, both the asking price (between €55m and €75m) and Pogba’s current annual salary of
£15 million present problems.
That salary, for instance, is more than double that of Juventus stars such as vice-captain Leonardo Bonucci (€6.5m), Argentine Paulo Dybala (€7.3m) or Brazilian Arthur (€5m). In short, Pogba would almost certainly have to take a wage cut at Juventus. Furthermore, Juventus, a club renowned for its shrewd husbandry, would probably want to first offload a big name such as Dybala or even, heaven forbid, Cristiano Ronaldo before they could contemplate a “heavy” deal like that involving Pogba.
Heavy deals, however, and multinationals are not matters that worry Mino Raiola. When Zlatan
“There are one or two football agents I simply do not like and Mino Raiola, Paul Pogba’s agent, is one of them. I distrusted him from the moment I met him”
Sir Alex Ferguson
Ibrahimovic in November asked in a tweet who had given Electronic Arts the permission to use his name and face in EA Sports’ hugely popular video game, FIFA 21, Raiola soon waded into the burgeoning and complex argument with a threat of legal action.
Classic Raiola: never one to be over impressed by big names or big tasks. From a tough, hardworking, familyoriented southern Italian background (his restaurant owning, Dutch immigrant father used to work 18-hour days), Raiola, like him or not, has got to where he is on the basis of hard work and sheer “nous”. Everyone agrees that he does a great job for his players, who he tends to see as “family”.
His attention to detail, to his players’ every minor practical or psychological need and above all his ability to cut a good deal means that a Who’s Who of world-class players have passed through his stable (and his bank account). Raiola also “knows” football. He has worked in football since his teenage years with HFC Haarlem, the city to which his family emigrated.
As early as 1988, he was involved in the transfer of Frank Rijkaard from Sporting to Milan. Today his clients include not just Ibrahimovic and Pogba but also Armenian Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Roma), Belgian Romelu Lukaku (Inter), Dutchman Matthijs de Ligt (Juventus), Norwegian Erling Haaland (Borussia Dortmund) and Italian Moise Kean (Paris Saint-Germain).
Each time, one of those players has moved clubs, Raiola has made money, sometimes a lot of money. For example, he is believed to have earned a cool €20m from Pogba’s 2016 move from Juventus to Manchester United. When, not long afterwards, he bought a Miami villa once owned by infamous Mafioso, Al Capone, critics commented that he could afford it. After all, according to
Forbes, his sports agency stable, limited to 70 or so “upmarket items”, last year returned a $700m turnover in negotiated deals.
Raiola may not be liked by everyone in the trade but there is no denying he is good at what he does and that he owes his success to his own unique talents – as well, of course, to those of his players.