The story behind Mino Raiola

The world of football went into a state of shock when it was announced that Mino Raiola had passed away. The super agent was only 54 years old, and he represented top-level players from across the globe, such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Paul Pogba, Erling Haaland, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Mario Balotelli and Matthijs de Ligt.

In the world of football, people either loved Mino Raiola… or hated him. There didn’t seem to be a middle ground. In the media, he was often criticized by journalists, managers, football clubs or fans. Much of that was down to the amount of money he made and how difficult he made it for some clubs before agreeing the terms of a transfer. But one thing was for sure: Mino Raiola’s players loved him, and he fought for them. 

Mino Raiola will probably go down as the most successful agent in the history of football. But not much is known about how he became a super agent and how he worked behind the scenes with his players, from his first small deals up until his first millions. Mino Raiola started from nothing in the Netherlands. 

We spoke with six different people who knew or have worked with Mino Raiola, from his teenage years in his parents’ Italian restaurant in the Netherlands, up until when he was the world's most famous football agent, to paint you the picture of who Mino Raiola really was behind the scenes, and how he became a mogul in the football world.

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