Mino Raiola: Super Agent

So often in American sports you hear of super agents like Scott Boras and Drew Rosenhaus who are more famous then some of their clients. In European football, agents play a big part, but you rarely hear from them or see who they are. Over the past few years, probably the football agent that has gotten the most publicity has been Mino Raiola. Raiola was Pavel Nedved’s agent back in the day, and most notably nowadays he’s the agent of players like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Mario Balotelli. This summer was arguably his biggest summer, where he managed to take Balotelli away from Inter and to Manchester City, and bring Zlatan Ibrahimovic back to Italy with Milan. Raiola’s story is pretty interesting, and here it is:

Because Mino (real name Carmine) Raiola get’s a lot of publicity in Italy you may think he’s Italian. And yes, he’s obviously Italian. But what you may not know is that he really isn’t that Italian at all, he’s born and raised Dutch. Raiola was born in Nocera Inferiore (provincia di Salerno) but when he was one years old his family immigrated to Haarlem in the Netherlands, where they opened an Italian restaurant. So Raiola grew up in the Netherlands, and even played for Haarlem’s football club until he was 18 when he decided that playing football wasn’t for him. He had another talent: making deals. Raiola had met many players throughout his childhood, because many of them would be at his parent’s restaurant many times a week. At the young age of 18 in 1986, he was named head of Haarlem’s youth system. From there, he decided to become a football agent, and from there his career took off.

So, Raiola isn’t an Italian agent, he’s licensed and registered in the Netherlands, and works for Amsterdam-based firm Macguire Tax and Legal, which has offices in Brazil, Montecarlo (where Raiola lives), and the Czech Republic (that’s how he got Nedved) as well. Raiola also speaks 6 languages, and always apologizes that his Italian isn’t perfect. Raiola however has always had a connection with the country of his birth. In 1993, he was the one that brought Dutch legend Dennis Bergkamp to Inter. He then brought Pavel Nedved to Italy, first to Lazio and then Juve, where he forged a relationship with Luciano Moggi. Because of this relationship, his client Zlatan Ibrahimovic wound up at Juve in 2004 instead of other destinations. In the summer of 2009, when Ibra wanted out of Inter, Raiola went to work and managed to get him a megamillion dollar move to Barcelona (as well as his other client Maxwell).

This past year, Raiola managed to acquire the services of Mario Balotelli. As soon as the news broke out, Inter fans everywhere knew this was trouble. And it was. Balotelli wanted out, and Raiola found a new destination for the emerging Italian star: Manchester City. Then came the Ibrahimovic deal to Milan, which Raiola calls “the greatest deal he ever made”. He managed to talk Barcelona down from an asking price of around 60 million euro to a one year loan with buy out clause of only 24 million euro (that’s only twice the price of Jorge Martinez!). Milan admired his work so much that when they went to get Robinho on the last day, they sent Raiola to Manchester to negotiate the deal with Manchester City. And how do you think that worked out? Robinho to Milan.

This certainly won’t be the last you hear of Mino Raiola, who is quickly becoming football’s supreme super agent. For now his job is easy since the transfer market is closed, but once January rolls around, get ready to see him in the press again.

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