I know you must have come across the name Mino Raiola many times this summer and you might be asking yourself who this person is. It seems like every transfer dealing with some of Europe’s biggest clubs involve this man. To be honest, i am just as curious as you are to know who he is. That’s why i decided to dig up a little background information on this super agent.
Mino Raiola is an Italian born naturalised Dutch. Raiola migrated to Haarlem Netherlands with his Parents soon after his birth. It was while in holland that he developed his passion for football joining local club Haarlem.
His love for the game however ended when he was 18. In1986, he became the youth team coach for Haarlem. 7 years later, Raiola successfully negotiated Dennis Bergkamp’s transfer to Italian giants Inter Milan. This was to be the beginning of a career that has led him to become one of the game’s most respected sports agents
Raiola is currently an attorney for world governing body FIFA as well as being highly respected sports attorney. Raiola represents a number of world class stars including: Ibrahimovic, Balotelli, Grygera, Kerlon (an emerging Brazilian star), Maxwell and Mattioni. He also represents Dutch coaching legend Martin Jol.
Of course the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Raiola or any sports agent for that matter money. To say Raiola has made decent amounts of money would be an understatement. In the past year alone, Raiola has closed deals worth over 100 million Euros from just a handful of players. It does not take a genius to figure out that Raiola is worth millions of dollars.
After successfully completing Ibrahimovic’s transfer from Catalan giants Barcelona to AC Milan , Raiola has been called to finalise a deal that would see another star move to the San Siro.
Robinho is said to be close to signing for the Serie A giants and Raiola’s midas touch is needed to complete the deal. Raiola is not even Robinho’s official agent but such is his confidence and success he has achieved that Milan decided to bring him to the negotiating table.
If you remember right, Robinho signed for City on the last day of the summer transfer window back in 2008. The Italian side are now hoping that they can sign Robinho before the deadline expires tonight at midnight.
Reports suggest that Milan are close to signing Robinho and that he will be announced today as a Milan player. The only issue is the fee. Both clubs are yet to agree on a transfer fee that would satisfy them. With only hours to go to the deadline, anxiety over Robinho’s fate has reached fever pitch.
Photo credit: from misallphoto
