Mino Raiola

Mino Raiola
Born Carmine Raiola
(1967-11-04) November 4, 1967
Nocera Inferiore, Italy
Nationality Italian
Dutch
Occupation Football agent

Carmine "Mino" Raiola [ˈmino ˈrajola]; born 4 November 1967) is an Italian-born Dutch football agent representing a number of well known players, including Manchester United players Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Paul Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Italian striker Mario Balotelli,[1] and Everton striker Romelu Lukaku. He was also for many years the agent of former Czech star midfielder Pavel Nedvěd.[2]

Biography

Raiola was born in 1967 in Nocera Inferiore, Salerno, in southern Italy.[3] He moved to the Dutch city of Haarlem a year later with his parents.[4] Growing up in the Netherlands, his father opened a successful restaurant business where Raiola spent his younger years working as a waiter.[5] At the same time, he obtained his high school diploma and attended University for two years, enrolling in the Faculty of Law.[6] He speaks seven languages: Italian, English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Dutch.[3]

He started playing football for the youth team of HFC Haarlem, but stopped at eighteen years old and in 1987 he became head of the youth of the team.[3] After a brief venture as a player and administrator, Raiola remained involved in the football world, this time as a football agent. He began working at Sports Promotions, a sports agent company, and assisted in the transfers several high-profile Dutch players to Italian clubs, including Ajax player Bryan Roy (in 1992 to Foggia), Marciano Vink (in 1993 to Genoa), Wim Jonk and Dennis Bergkamp (both in 1993 to Internazionale) and Michel Kreek (in 1994 to Padua). After a while, however, he decided to leave the company and start his own business. His first independent big transfer was Pavel Nedvěd's signing from Sparta Prague for Lazio following his impressive performance at UEFA Euro 1996, where Nedvěd's Czech Republic reached the tournament final.

Just after the turn of the century, Raiola came to Ajax with his own business. It earned him several new clients, including then-young stars Zlatan Ibrahimović, Mido and Maxwell. On 31 August 2004, the last day of the summer transfer window, Raiola successfully negotiated Ibrahimović's transfer to Juventus for €16 million. Maxwell and Zdeněk Grygera, however, decided not to renew their contracts with Ajax, allowing both players to leave on free transfers. After these transfers, Ajax for a long time did no business with Raiola.

Even without cooperation from Ajax, however, Raiola continued with a string of successful transfers: he negotiated Ibrahimović's later transfers to Inter (in 2006) and Barcelona (in 2009), while from 2010 to 2011, Raiola was involved in five Milan transfers, including Ibrahimović, Robinho, Mark van Bommel, Urby Emanuelson and Dídac Vilà, despite not all being his clients.

More than 20 players playing in European leagues are represented by Raiola.[7] He currently resides in Monaco. In 2008, he was involved in two disciplinary hearings instigated by the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC) for transfer irregularities.[8][9][10][11]

In August 2016, after closing the world football transfer record of Paul Pogba to Manchester United, Raiola made a reported €25 million off of Pogba's €105 million transfer; he bought the Miami villa of one of America's most famous mob bosses, Al Capone for €9 million.[12]

Clients

Selection of transfer deals brokered

Date Player New club Previous club Transfer sum
Winter 1988 Frank Rijkaard Milan Sporting CP Unknown
Summer 1993 Dennis Bergkamp Internazionale Ajax £12 million[23]
Summer 2001 Pavel Nedvěd Juventus Lazio €41 million[24]
Summer 2004 Zlatan Ibrahimović Juventus Ajax €16 million[25]
Summer 2006 Zlatan Ibrahimović Internazionale Juventus €24.8 million[26]
Summer 2009 Zlatan Ibrahimović Barcelona Internazionale €46 million[27]
Summer 2010 Robinho Milan Manchester City €35 million[28]
Summer 2010 Mario Balotelli Manchester City Internazionale £24 million[29]
Summer 2010 Zlatan Ibrahimović Milan Barcelona Loan (€24M)
Summer 2012 Zlatan Ibrahimović Paris Saint-Germain Milan €20 million
Winter 2013 Mario Balotelli Milan Manchester City €20 million
Winter 2013 Bartosz Salamon Milan Brescia €3.5 million
Summer 2014 Mario Balotelli Liverpool Milan £16 million
Summer 2016 Zlatan Ibrahimović Manchester United Paris Saint-Germain Free[30]
Summer 2016 Henrikh Mkhitaryan Manchester United Borussia Dortmund £31 million
Summer 2016 Paul Pogba Manchester United Juventus €105 million[31]
Summer 2016 Mario Balotelli Nice Liverpool Free[32]

References

  1. ↑ Eurozone: Balotelli the loser in fight with Mourinho by Pete Jenson, 20 March 2010 on The Independent
  2. 1 2 Nedved is Ferguson's big target by Daniel Taylor, 25 April 2003 on The Guardian
  3. 1 2 3 "Il cacciatore di piedi: Mino Raiola" (in Italian). 18 March 2011. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
  4. ↑ http://www.ilsecoloxix.it/p/sport/2011/03/18/AOuCIVF-piedi_cacciatore_raiola.shtml
  5. ↑ http://www.corriere.it/sport/14_agosto_23/parla-raiola-balotelli-non-leader-liverpool-lui-l-ultima-spiaggia-8866096e-2a89-11e4-9f31-ce6c8510794f.shtml
  6. ↑ http://blog.panorama.it/sport/2010/08/31/calciomercato-il-trionfo-di-mino-raiola/
  7. ↑ Players list Mino Raiola
  8. ↑ "COMUNICATO UFFICIALE N. 34/CDN (2008–09)" (PDF). FIGC. 6 November 2008. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
  9. ↑ "COMUNICATO UFFICIALE N. 60/CGF" (PDF). FIGC. 6 November 2008. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
  10. ↑ "COMUNICATO UFFICIALE N. 84/CGF" (PDF). FIGC. 19 December 2008. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
  11. ↑ "Agent Regulation (Old Edition)" (PDF). FIGC (in Italian). c. 2007. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
  12. ↑ "Pogba and Ibrahimovic's agent Mino Raiola buys Al Capone's home". ESPNFC.com. 18 August 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  13. ↑ "Sporting briefs". Times of Malta. 2004-08-31. Retrieved 2010-09-04.
  14. 1 2 "Reals bud på Zlatan - en bluff (in Swedish)". Times of Malta. 2005-05-24. Retrieved 2010-09-04.
  15. ↑ "Juventus nästa för Zlatan". Sydsvenskan. 2004-09-01. Retrieved 2010-09-04.
  16. ↑ "Carmine Raiola owns Felipe" (Press release). .imscouting.com. 2008-11-30. Retrieved 2010-09-04.
  17. ↑ "Mino Raiola will be the next agent of Mario Balotelli" (Press release). mario-balotelli.info. 2010-03-14. Retrieved 2010-09-04.
  18. ↑ "AC Milan planning Inter raid for Maxwell". tribalfootball.com. 2009-03-16. Retrieved 2010-09-04.
  19. ↑ "Empresário de Kerlon ataca e chama Emerson Leão de "burro" (in Portuguese)". Folha.com. 2007-09-20. Retrieved 2010-09-04.
  20. ↑ "Henrikh Mkhitaryan signs with new agent to secure Liverpool transfer". metro.co.uk. 2013-04-23. Retrieved 2013-04-27.
  21. ↑ "Ibra, Matuidi, Capoue : Les croustillantes indiscrétions de Mino Raiola" (Press release). footmercato.net. 2013-04-23. Retrieved 2013-04-23.
  22. 1 2 "Matuidi change d'agent" (Press release). SoFoot.com. 2013-04-24. Retrieved 2013-04-24.
  23. ↑ Dennis Bergkamp - The Iceman Website
  24. ↑ Nedved: I can retire happy
  25. ↑ "Operations concerning Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Fabrizio Miccoli registration rights" (PDF). Juventus. 2004-08-31. Retrieved 2010-09-04.
  26. ↑ "ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC SIGNS FOR INTER". Internazionale. 2006-08-10. Retrieved 2009-07-26.
  27. ↑ "Ibrahimovic signs five-year contract". FCBarcelona.cat (Press release). FC Barcelona. 2009-07-27. Retrieved 2009-07-27.
  28. ↑ "English Premier League spending tumbles". BBC News. 31 August 2010.
  29. ↑ "Man City complete Balotelli deal". BBC News. 13 August 2010.
  30. ↑ "ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC SIGNS FOR INTER". Internazionale. 2006-08-10. Retrieved 2009-07-26.
  31. ↑ "Official: Pogba signs for Man Utd for €105m". Football Italia. 8 August 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  32. ↑ "Mino Raiola warned Nice against Mario Balotelli signing". ESPN FC. 27 September 2016.
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