In a recent photograph of Mino Raiola he is sandwiched between Gerard Nijkamp and Adriaan Visser, the technical director and chairman of Eredivisie side PEC Zwolle. They are listening and leaning in as the agent holds court. Five years ago, Nijkamp said it was ‘great’ Raiola would grace PEC with their presence and he ‘really understands football’. Raiola has the ear of football executives at both ends of the food chain.
After a relatively quiet summer he himself spent at the World Cup in Russia, Raiola could dominate the market again. In 2016, it was Paul Pogba, the following year it was Romelu Lukaku and now it is maybe Matthijs de Ligt’s turn.
Like Pogba, De Ligt’s platform for transfer teasing is Instagram, where he is suddenly and strategically liking former and current United players’ posts. Raiola looks upon some of his players as family. Others would argue they are puppets.
Lukaku was, until this season, a Raiola stablemate but is now represented by the Italian Federico Pastorello. Lukaku and Pogba used to holiday together and entertained Raiola at United’s FA Cup final hotel at The Grove last year but the pair are no longer as tight. With Raiola, it is often personal and not strictly business.
Some who have encountered Raiola on his visits to Manchester have spoken unflatteringly about him. One source described Raiola as ‘an ignorant f*****’ who insists on speaking Neapolitan. Zlatan Ibrahimovic likened him to a character from The Sopranos and Raiola does look like he has walked off the set of a Martin Scorsese film. He deliberately dresses casually to lull people into a false sense of security.
Ironically, Lukaku could leave United before Pogba. Lukaku is enticed by the prospect of finally working with Antonio Conte at Internazionale next season having all but agreed to play for him at Chelsea two years ago. Then Raiola intervened and suddenly there was a change of course.
Jose Mourinho privately admitted Raiola had ‘played his hand well’ during the Lukaku negotiations. The Belgian was always United’s preferred number nine option but the club expected him to end up at Chelsea. So did Lukaku at the start of that summer and United were already working on a deal for Alvaro Morata. Until they got word from Raiola Lukaku had been persuaded to join United instead. Chelsea were blindsided and left with Morata.
As a source close to the 2016 Pogba deal put it, ‘the main problem is dealing with Raiola’ and United are reluctant to deal with him again. Fifa announced on May 10 they have banned Raiola from football activity for three months but the puppeteer is still pulling the strings. De Ligt is making all the right non-committal noises and his price is only heading north. United admire De Ligt but are convinced he is Barcelona-bound.
Despite his association with Jorge Mendes, Mourinho was dependent on Raiola in his first summer at United. Raiola conceded in an interview with the Financial Times they had a ‘bad relationship’ while Mourinho was manager of Internazionale in Italy, where he had to handle the irascible Mario Balotelli and swapped Ibrahimovic for Samuel Eto’o. An Ibrahimovic reunion was straightforward. Mkhitaryan, in retrospect, looked like a sweetener to secure Pogba.
Mendes acted as Mourinho’s eyes and ears as he mediated on the Pogba deal and was informed Pogba would accept a United homecoming before anyone at United was. Mendes voiced reservations about supervising Raiola and has not collaborated with him since.
Raiola advised Pogba to choose Manchester over Madrid. Pogba was originally intent on moving to Spain to work with his idol Zinedine Zidane yet Raiola urged him to opt for United, on the proviso they aim for a move to Real after three years. There are 41.39million reasons why Raiola recommended United.
His fee was a stumbling block since Juventus refused to pay half of Raiola’s commission and United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward was reluctant to budge. Juve insisted United should pay Raiola, since he effectively chose United as the buying club.
From the overall fee paid for Pogba, a small solidarity payment went to Pogba’s youth club Le Havre and agent Raiola’s cut was £23m. United paid Juventus the full £89m transfer fee and the Serie A champions distributed it. Football Leaks: The Dirty Business of Football then claimed Raiola received five additional instalments of £16.39m.
Pogba – the ‘captain midfielder’ Mourinho coveted – would be the United manager’s downfall. Like Sir Alex Ferguson, Mourinho grew to not just distrust Raiola but dislike dealing with him.
Come last year, United appeared to regret their super-agent alliance. United sources specifically ridiculed the fee Yerry Mina’s agent was demanding and hoped Everton would eschew signing him, dreading it could distort the market. United had set the precedent for such rapaciousness with Raiola’s eye-watering slice of the Pogba pie.
Now United are heading in the polar opposite direction, shunning ‘superstars’ and identifying lower-tier British youngsters such as Daniel James. They have been burnt by Mendes duo Angel di Maria and Radamel Falcao and Raiola has destabilised them. There are tell-tale signs of Raiola-planted stories and United are wise to them. Senior figures at the club were understandably ‘p***** off’ about Raiola offering Pogba to Manchester City last year.
Only Pogba is approaching the final two years of his contract and negotiations, as Raiola once said, are ‘my matches’.
He will have United’s ear again.
How Manchester United"s transfer relationship with Mino Raiola has changed - Manchester Evening News
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