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Mino Raiola Dies at Age 54; Agent to Paul Pogba, Erling Haaland, More
April 30, 2022
Famed soccer agent Carmine "Mino" Raiola has died at the age of 54.
Raiola's family posted a statement Saturday on his Twitter account:
Raiola counted Borussia Dortmund's Erling Haaland, Manchester United's Paul Pogba and AC Milan's Zlatan Ibrahimovic among his high-profile clients.
His death comes two days after a series of premature reports suggesting he'd passed away Thursday, which led him to express frustration on social media.
"Current health status for the ones wondering: pissed off second time in four months they kill me. Seem also able to resuscitate," Raiola wrote.
He was admitted to Milan's San Raffaele Hospital in January because of an undisclosed health issue.
Raiola rose to prominence after starting his own agency, which counted longtime Juventus and Czech Republic national team standout Pavel Nedved as its first major client.
He went on to become a major player in world football and brokered Pogba's then-record €105 million transfer to Manchester United. He was reported to have earned €25 million from that deal.
More recently, he was in the process of helping Haaland determine the next stop for his burgeoning career amid interest from many of Europe's top clubs.
In December, Raiola told Germany's Sport1 (via Sporting News) he helped change the sport by making the transfer market a separate spectacle for fans.
"I changed the transfer market with my players," he said. "We consultants have created a second game alongside football: calciomercato [Italian for transfer market]. Now we talk about a game two days a week and five days about transfers."
He added his willingness to "go to war for my players" made him unpopular among sporting directors around Europe.
"If they hate me, then it's the biggest compliment for me," Raiola said. "Then I'm doing something well. If they said, 'It's good that Raiola advises the player, it'll be easy for us,' then I'd have a problem."
His notable clients also included Mario Balotelli, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Romelu Lukaku, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Marco Verratti.