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[이데일리 스타in 이석무 기자] Mino Raiola, who was called the ‘super agent’ who shook the world football world, passed away at the age of 54.
Major European media, including the British BBC, reported the death of Raiola, who served as an agent for world-class soccer players on the 30th (Korean time).
Raiola’s family also acknowledged this in an official statement. Raiola’s family said: “In our infinite sorrow, we share the most surprising death of an agent in football history. His presence will be forever missed.” A specific cause was not disclosed.
Raiola was born in Italy in 1967, but moved to the Netherlands the following year to grow up there. Starting his agent career in the Netherlands, he showed off his strong influence by having world-class stars such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Paul Pogba, Gianluigi Donnarumma, and Elling Haaland as clients.
In particular, Raiola is famous for taking care of the players and their interests thoroughly. His negotiating ability is a good example of Haaland’s negotiating ability in 2019, when he collected a whopping 10 million euros as an agent’s fee out of the 22.5 million euros in transfer fee incurred when he transferred Haaland from Salzburg, Austria to Dortmund, Germany.
It was also Raiola’s work in 2016 when he transferred Paul Pogba, who was then from Juventus, to Manchester United, which was the highest transfer fee at the time of £89 million.
Some big clubs despise Raiola as an agent who is obsessed with greed and knows nothing but money. Simon Jordan, former chairman of Crystal Palace, criticized in an interview, saying, “Raiola sucks other people’s money like a parasite.”
However, Raiola maintained a strong relationship for a long time while providing the best service to its clients, the players. As a result, global stars who wanted to have him as an agent came to him. As the number of superstar customers increased, Raiola’s influence grew as well.
The news of Raiola’s death came first on the 28th, two days ago. At the time, it was proven to be false. It was because Raiola had posted that she was not dead. But two days after the article was published, an official announcement announcing his death was made. It was reported that his condition was already in critical condition when the false death report came out.
