Mino Raiola has died at age 54 at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan. He was hospitalized due to a lung disease in January, but his doctors dismissed the rumors about him having emergency surgery at the time. His health deteriorated in the last few weeks and he was in critical conditions for some time, Il Tempo reports.
According to Forbes’ latest rankings, he was the fourth most influential agent in the world in 2020. He cashed in €85M commissions, with an €850M turnover. He assisted several current and former Serie A stars, including Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Romelu Lukaku, Matthijs De Ligt, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Paul Pogba, Marco Verratti, Stefan De Vrij, Alessio Romagnoli, Hirving Lozano, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, among many others. His agency has been focusing on the future of Erling Haaland in recent times.
Raiola was born in Nocera Inferiore, near Salerno, in 1967. His family moved to Haarlem, in the Netherlands, when he was a kid. He waited tables growing up, which generated his nickname. On top of his giant deals, he often grabbed headlines for his flamboyant statements. He spoke seven languages, but he told Corriere della Sera: “I think in the dialect of Campania because it is faster.” He had launched a crusade against FIFA that was trying to limit the power of agents.
The representative brokered some of the wealthiest transfers and helped his clients get massive wages, making him beloved among players. Raiola registered the biggest commission in history, €26M, on Paul Pogba’s return to Manchester United in 2016. He was set to smash it with the upcoming Haaland transfer.