Italian football agent Mino Raiola is reputedly “very ill” after hoax rumours of his death.
The Italian is one of the most remarkable agents in world football, acting for the players like Erling Haaland, Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic among a number of other high-profile clients.
Reports in Italy declared the agent had died on Thursday morning after an illness.
Yet sources close to the Italian were quick to speak that these were “fake rumours”. Jose Fortes Rodriguez, a close colleague of him, notified reporters, “He’s in a bad position, but he hasn’t died.”
Taking to Twitter on Thursday afternoon, Raiola cited, “Current health status for the ones wondering: p***** off second time in 4 months they kill me. Seem also able to resuscitate.”
“I’m outraged by the phone calls from pseudo-journalists speculating on the life of a man who is fighting to survive,” Alberto Zangrillo, a doctor at the hospital said.
While he was born in Italy, Raiola’s parents moved to the Netherlands just one-year following his birth, developing in Haarlem. He played football for the local side, HFC Haarlem, ahead of becoming the head of their youth team.
He also acted in being an administrator, prior of settling on becoming an agent for Sports Promotion, acting as a part in the transfers of a number of Dutch superstars. This counted the move of Dennis Bergkamp to Inter Milan in 1993.
Raiola then decided to get away and form his own agency business, with the transfer of Pavel Nedved to Lazio marked as his first big move after his performances in Euro 1996, where Nedved assisted to guide the Czech Republic to the final.
That is where he started to build his heritage, with his skills to speak seven different languages supporting him gain several high-profile clients.
In 2016 he helped play a crucial role in the World Record transfer of Paul Pogba from Juventus to Manchester United, for roughly £90million.
His current list of clients involves: Erling Haaland, Matthijs de Ligt, Paul Pogba, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Marco Verrati, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Steven de Vrij among others.
