The legendary football agent died exhausted by the illness, Italian media say.
Mino Raiola was the most famous player agent in the football world. EPA / AOP
Football agent Mino Raiola is dead. A 54-year-old football reporter tells of the death of a 54-year-old agent Tancredi Palmeri.
Known as a very colorful person, Raiola worked, among other things Zlatan Ibrahimovicin, Erlend Hålandin and Paul Pogban as a player agent.
According to media reports, Raiola was hospitalized in January for an unknown reason. He was later operated on.
According to Bild, Raiola suffers from lung disease.
Raiola himself wrote on Twitter in January that the hospital trip was not an emergency measure.
Raiola, who struggled with modest conditions, acquired a huge fortune by negotiating plush contracts with the big clubs for the football stars he represents. Raiola received a significant share of each transfer.
Raiola, who moved to the Netherlands with her family as a child, took the seal from an employee to a leadership role at a local football club.
The first major player transfer trained by Raiola was Pavel Nedvedin transition to Italian Lazio. Later, Raiola took care of a Czech talent in Juventus.
Raiola had a phenomenal ability to negotiate substantial monetary compensation for both himself and the players he represented in club transfers and contracts. Over the years, almost all the tops in the football world enjoyed his protection.
As a player agent, Raiola was not afraid of publicity. He enjoyed the pages of the magazines, often shooting sharp comments that gave rise to big headlines.
It was Raiola’s way of keeping the players he represented prominently in the media. Raiola was not afraid of fan reactions or angry comments from club leaders at the negotiating tables.
The blatant tactics paid off. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Raiola’s assets approached 100 million euros.