Real Madrid Lose at Last but Jorge Mendes Is Still a Winner

La Liga restarted in tumultuous fashion last weekend. Barcelona and Real Madrid began 2015 by losing on the same round of fixtures for the first time since 2010/11. Hay Liga ("there is a Liga," or a competition for it), as they say in Spain.

Much as Real Sociedad—and their acclimatising coach David Moyes—deserve great credit for their Sunday night win over Barca, Valencia took the weekend’s plaudits, and rightly so. Their efforts in halting Real Madrid’s 22-match winning run at the Mestalla were titanic, in the midst of a cacophonous 55,000 sell-out crowd in the famous old stadium.

Of all the onlookers inside the stadium and on television screens worldwide, few could have been as satisfied as Jorge Mendes. His fingerprints were all over this. Mendes’ most celebrated client, Cristiano Ronaldo, had opened the scoring from the penalty spot, before Valencia clicked into gear. Los Che’s second-half winner was scored by Nicolas Otamendi, another from the Mendes stable and a symbol of his growing influence at the club.

Mendes’ reputation is no secret. To briefly recap, he is without a doubt the most powerful agent in the world. His rise to the very top is undeniably built around Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho, who he has looked after since brokering his 2004 move to Chelsea. Ever since, he has had a piece of anything of value from (or that has passed through) his native Portugal.

Last summer, he was the conduit for the biggest transfers in the window, with his clients Radamel Falcao, Eliaquim Mangala, Angel Di Maria, James Rodriguez and Diego Costa all making lucrative moves. Mendes’ latest deal was also on display at the Mestalla on Sunday, with Valencia debutant Enzo Perez (just signed from Benfica for €25 million) rarely leaving the side of his stablemate Ronaldo as he sought, largely successfully, to shut him down.

Mendes’ involvement in Valencia is a new step, though. He is no stranger to involvement with the Spanish game, having been heavily involved in recruitment at Deportivo La Coruna (he is friends with the Galician club’s long-serving president, Augusto Cesar Lendoiro) and having made a number of deals involving Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid.

This time, the hands-on nature of Mendes’ influence is fully recognised. It was the agent himself who introduced his friend Peter Lim to Valencia president Amadeo Salvo as the latter began to look for a buyer for the club at the start of last year, with major creditor Bankia (owed €300 million) keen to sell up.

Mendes and Lim had already been working together for some time on projects including a fund for young sports people (looked at by Matt Scott in The Guardian as early as July 2011), and Lim had already explored the possibility of buying out Liverpool and Atletico.

The chaotic state of Valencia’s finances meant that it took almost a year to complete Lim’s purchase of a 70 percent stake, but it was finally done in October. With Salvo retained as president, the club was already being run according to Lim’s (and, implicitly, Mendes’) blueprint.

The major summer arrivals included Benfica pair Rodrigo and Andre Gomes, bought by Lim’s player-investment fund on winter transfer-deadline day last year for a combined €45 million (as per Mais Futebol, in Portuguese) and left parked with the Estadio da Luz club until they were initially loaned to Valencia, pending the completion of Lim’s purchase of the club, in summer. Playmaker Gomes, incidentally, was again excellent against El Real.

Perhaps the biggest sign of the hand of Mendes was the arrival of Nuno as coach, to replace the Argentinian Juan Antonio Pizzi. The 40-year-old had little top-level experience, with two seasons in charge of Rio Ave on his senior CV. He did, however, guide the modest northern Portuguese side into Europe for the first time after reaching two cup finals in 2013/14.

It was Nuno who had set Mendes on his path. In 1997, when he was goalkeeper at Vitoria Guimaraes, he had asked his friend—then a local nightclub owner—to help him negotiate a transfer to Deportivo La Coruna. Mendes agreed, and the rest is history.

Whatever your view of the motivations behind the appointment, it’s been a resounding success. Nuno’s switch to 3-5-2 to exploit the lack of cover for Real Madrid’s full-backs was his latest tactical masterstroke in a highly impressive season. Valencia look good for a Champions League return.

There are many questions still to be answered. Marca pointed out on the completion of the takeover that Lim’s investment was significantly less than had been initially suggested, and one wonders whether new signings will ultimately belong to the club, or to Meriton. For now, though, the Lim and Mendes recipe seems to be working.