The news spread rapidly online: Mino Raiola, 54-year-old player advisor to Erling Haaland and numerous other football superstars, is dead. Given that Raiola has been treated for months for a serious illness in Milan’s San Raffaele hospital, it sounded the message believable. But the denial came quickly. Both Raiola and his treating doctor denied reporting the death.
Raiola comes from a town south of Naples and the family moved to the Netherlands as a child. There he was initially a pizza maker, threw up a law degree and then became a player’s agent.
He represents some of football’s biggest and most eccentric stars such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, world champion Paul Pogba and European champions Gianluigi Donnarumma and Marco Verratti. He is loved by the players and often feared by clubs. He is royally rewarded for his services: In the then record transfer of Pogbas from Juventus Turin to Manchester United for 105 million euros, he is said to have received up to 50 million euros. Total lists “transfermarkt.de” 76 active and former professionals that Raiola represents.