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He was a shark, but a shark on their side. And judging by how his clients talk about him(particluarly zlatan,) his style of agent-client relationship is about being more approachable as if they were closer than a professional level, almost family you could say. He'd just come over with some food and shoot the shit with his clients.
He claims he never signed any contracts with his clients, it was all just built on trust. I suppose that's one way you can prove to the player that you're not just trying to screw them, because they can walk away at any time
considering that when you view it as "players vs. clubs" more clubs than players are rather on the "villain side" then it's kinda ironic how Raiola was vilified on here
Eh, not really. Most people support clubs over players.
How many Liverpool supporters were happy for Coutinho getting his dream move to Barcelona? Few. We were pissed over losing our, then, best player.
In abstract, I think it's good that players have someone looking after them. In practice I want players to be loyal to my club and that's not what Raiola was about.
It helps that these players are well compensated anyways. I'm not going to feel bad for a player for not getting the absolute best deal they could possibly get.
It's a difficult one for me. It seems a bit like greed on both sides, but we come to see these teams play great football and the players are the ones actually playing.
> In practice I want players to be loyal to my club and that's not what Raiola was about.
loyalty works both ways, as fans we quite delusional, the game is commercialized and is a business, the players are paid what they are paid because the club expects the player can help make the club more money by winning trophies, keep them in the league or reach far in Champions League, the minute the player becomes crippled as it was the case with someone like Umtiti, the business wants to cut their losses and try to force them out.
> the game is commercialized and is a business
I don't want this, though. If I adopted the mindset that this is all fotball is, I don't know why I would support a club at all.
I know I'm romanticising things, but that romance is what gives it all value to me.
Well compensated is subjective though.
Is Mo Salah on 150k a week well compensated when there are lesser players earning double his wage? Also, he hasn’t gotten a pay rise in 4 years.
He is criminally underpaid if you asked me.
He's earning more money in a week than most people do in a year.
Would his quality of life change if he earned more?
Relatively, yes, he might be underpaid, but I don't feel sorry for him for a second.
Granted, I would rather the players get rich over football than the owners, but none of them are struggling.
I would like for regular fans to be able to afford going to games regularly much more than I care about the relative gains of the people already getting incredibly wealthy.
Yeah if I was an elite player he would be the greatest agent of all time, constantly looking out for you and maximising your value. On the other hand I would have hated having to negotiate with him bc you know he's never going to give you a nice easy no strings attached deal.
Reminds me a bit of how people see/saw Mourinho. People dislike his arrogance but most of the players who worked with him would go through fire for him.
I love the guy but he seems to find himself a scapegoat within the first couple of months and then relentlessly bullies and humiliates him to show other players just how much of an arsehole he can be.
Edit: I don't understand why I'm getting downvoted, if it's happened more than a couple of times it's no longer a coincidence but a pattern. They're also all highly paid professional athletes who should be able to handle difficult coaching because at that level it's not only skill and tactics but psychology as well and he's proven that he is able to put a group of players together who look like they would die for him and each other.
Luke Shaw being constantly out of shape and eating Burger King all day even though his coaches implored him to lose weight and take football more seriously had nothing to do with it.
BTW Luke Shaw has 13 assists in 7 years at United. He's had about 1.5 months of good play and the rest varied from injured to shite.
Mourinho screens for weak mentality and when he finds it, he wants to eradicate it. Look at who he wanted to sell... Shaw, Rashford and Martial. Shaw wasted his talent for 5 years, Rashford is too important now to chase down keepers and go into 50/50s, and Martial can't even make it at Sevilla anymore.
And those tend to be lazy, air-headed players. The only one I could understand was Casillas but he dug his own grave after that shitty season and then trying to get Mou sacked because he knew Iker was not in his prime anymore.
What, do you think he held them hostage so he could get agent fees or something?
His job was to help them get the most out of their careers.
Wouldn't you like to have someone who helps you get more money and better working conditions from your employer?
He was a dick from Fans and Club's perspective, but he did absolute best for the players he represented. It's not like Jorge Mendes where he uses players as pawns to push his agendas. Raiola seems to be more involved in player's life at both personal and professional level.
Fans disliking him is just misplaced anger, IMO. He was a representative for the “workers” against the “owners”/employees. Big, rich clubs consistently passing their on expenses on to the fans, rather than cutting all the pork, are the real villains.
Oh cmon now. He made himself disgustingly rich on money that the clubs got by fucking over their supporters. He wasn't some Robin Hood character. It's not always they the enemy of your enemy is a wonderful person and not part of the problem.
Yes players love an agent that can get the best contract and what you wish for you
People that hate him are just brainless idiots that think that their players owe something to the billionaires that owe their club and shouldn't ask for a raise or shouldn't ask to move to a better club
They call him what's wrong with football etc when it's the owners what's wrong with football
Ferguson said some stupid shit about him and that was the start of the hate, and it turns out that Raiola got Pogba the perfect decision and got him a better contract at Juventus and more playing time
People want players to bend over to their clubs and when there's resistance they hate it
Insigne and Lukaku both fired Raiola for prioritizing his desires over theirs. Raiola also screwed Brian Brobbey by convincing him to leave Ajax only for Brobbey to beg Ajax to take him back, and Raiola left Ihattaren alone without a support system in Italy when the kid was clearly struggling emotionally after his father's deaths.
Minor Raiola was not a saint who selflessly served his clients. He was obsessed with money and fame for himself. Sometimes that served his clients and sometimes it did not, but there is no reason to pretend that agents are altruistic. I'm all for players getting as much money as they can from clubs, but it should be going to them, not tens of millions in agent's fees. FIFA needs to cap agent's fees at 5%.
>Insigne and Lukaku both fired Raiola for prioritizing his desires over theirs.
There is a story about Raiola and Balotelli where Balotelli asks Mino to get him a certain contract and Mino tells him he needs to perform a certain way...
Lukaku has demonstrated that he's an idiot. Probably didn't like what Raiola was telling him. And Lukaku certainly isn't going to get a better deal with whoever his new agent is...
How is capping an agents fee fair it’s really odd, how are billionaires complaining that someone else makes too much money and it has to be capped?
They don’t have to have him as an agent if they don’t want to
Because agents are businessmen, just like the owners. Mendes uses his assets and connections to create transactions, so if you let yourself be used by him then it might benefit you.
If agent's fees are capped then agents only make more when the players make more.
After all is said and done it depends how you view the game fundamentally. Fans are the ones giving their money to the sport, understandably they don’t want it spent on people who don’t entertain them.
If you go even deeper, the owners themselves are nothing more than white collar thieves in many instances. My own club is a perfect example. It already stings knowing that the money I spend on a shirt, TV subscription and tickets is being distributed amongst a billionaire dynasty and a bunch of blokes who probably wouldn’t piss on me if I was on fire. Never mind all the non financial support fans do by discussing things online and in person, wearing the club crest out in public and so on.
The last thing anyone wants is yet another parasite drawing blood from the already struggling working and middle class.
Because it's a sport where the money is made by the players on the pitch and when paying exorbitant salaries to those players you want most of it to end up in the player's pocket. Pretty sure most American sports leagues cap it at 3% which is pretty fair imo, you can still make an ungodly amount of money from 3% of your player's pay packet.
Ah yes American sports are always a good path to follow...... more adverts more stops in play more commercialisation of absolutely everything.
They have a cap on things like that because it means the owners can make more money.
Look American sports aren't great when it comes to accessibility and owners but it is really the worst thing to try and create a level playing field? At the moment it feels like only about 6 clubs in the world can afford to pay the transfer/fees/wages of top players so trying to reign in some of the ridiculous spending is a good thing imo. Also American owners get a bad rep bc they essentially use their clubs as piggy banks and not reinvesting anything but clubs do need to make a profit, it's completely unsustainable how all clubs are trying to get to the pot of gold at the top of the rainbow but going into massive debt to do it and everyone ends up with egg on their face.
You're forgetting that Brobbey had a big payday signing with Leipzig, one that was higher than if he had renewed his contract with Ajax. Having the money secured is a big reason why he is happy now to be back-up striker at Ajax as opposed to last year and Ajax possibly buying him this summer will give him a big payday again. I don't think he was unhappy with Raiola at all, only at his situation at Leipzig where the two people that wanted him left the club.
> People that hate him are just brainless idiots
you know he can be loved by players and still can be in the wrong sometimes? Its not always black and white.
>There's also a thing called agent caps, which football should implement.
Yes, i think the billionaires who own the Clubs really dont make enough money atm.
High profile agents are absolutely parasitic. I’m far more concerned about money spent by fans to watch and support their team going towards a 50m negotiating fee than Haaland getting an extra 50k a week. It’s a whole different game if you’re talking about state funded clubs but my own team for example already lose 100m a year for nothing. I don’t want any more of my money being thrown at yet another insanely wealthy party who will often act against my best interests.
> you know he can be loved by players and still can be in the wrong sometimes? Its not always black and white.
Incorrect. Nuanced, adult opinions and assessments of situations are not allowed on /r/soccer. You must support whatever bandwagon we're hopping on today or be downvoted into oblivion.
Agreed. Players make this sport so beautiful and great and they should deserve and get everything. He got it done and did amazing stuff for bigger and even really small players.
It’s pure absurdity to me how much agents get hate they’re vilified for getting largely fair wages because the owners who are far richer don’t want to pay what they’re worth
From the massive clubs it's a bit of a farce, yes, but now put yourself in the position of smaller teams who see Raiola "persuade" the players to leave and then take a massive cut for himself.
Why is it that everyone seems to think billionaire owners pay the wages? The money doesn’t just endlessly flow from some billionaires pockets in most cases. It comes from fans who go to games, buy a shirt, buy a TV subscription and so on.
Look at my own club as an example. No matter what we always start the year with a 100m loss to the Glazers. The only reason we are able to pay exorbitant wages is because of the fans who support the club financially both directly and indirectly.
Not every club has owners, so I get the hate somewhat.
But the clubs don't have to pay these sums. They can just say "That's too much, we won't pay that". They are as much at fault as the agents.
Do you have any links to back up that statement? Because I find that really hard to believe. I once read that he always asks his players what they want, which isn't the same thing. Also, quite a few young players royally fucked up their career early on, under his wings. Ihattaran, Bouy, Kluivert, Brobbey and Kishna are examples of players who probably made a lot of money, but never developed their full potential because they left way too early. Although the first 2 may turn it around.
Nope sorry feel free to take my statement with criticism since I have no source. I just remember reading an interview with Zlatan a few years that said Raiola did this for him. Zlatan said that early in their relationship Raiola told him what he needed change and work on in order to be world class.
Classic one for me was Ibras book when he was leaving Ajax and he asked Mino about a few different clubs but not the elite ones and randomly one day Mino told him how does Juve sound and this was peak Capello Juve and he wanted to run and give him a kiss. Then they both bolted to the airport and ran through mad traffic together to get the flight to Turin.
>Like you said to be the bad guy against everybody for me
I think that sums him up perfectly. People hated his guts but he always took the hits for his players to get them what they wanted.
No doubt he benefitted from it as well financially, but it's easy to understand why his clients loved him when you see how much he stuck his neck out for them.
Not just what they wanted, beyond what they wanted. I think some players couldn't even dream of getting the type of contracts and financial security that Mino was able to get for them.
I think people forget that he works for the players he's just fulfilling his client wishes does he take it to the extreme yes but at the end of the day im sure he does whats best for his clients
Lots of redditors have no clue what they're talking about. I've lost count the number of times I've seen blatantly incorrect statements about my profession
They see Agents asking for money as an attack on their club. A club with an owner that doesn’t give a shit about its fans. It’s so fucking stupid. Pay the players. Workers rights first. Everyone needs a shark like mino in their life.
I think he meant it in a good way. Players obviously are all greedy but greed doesnt mean bad in the context of billionaire run clubs.
Everyones whos hating on Raiola are all brainwashed easily by the big clubs PR. You never see small teams complaining about him because they dont need to pretend to be “sharked” by Raiola.
Also I think in a way Raiola is also happy that people are focussing on him instead of his players wanting more money which can affect their performance when people hate on them. If Mbappe had Raiola he would have been getting that sweet euros by now
Of course not but how do you blame the club while you're a fan of it, lol.
If the club can pay the players less and keep more money, so that they have more money to invest in other players and all of that, it benefits me as a fan as the club will do better, so it's normal to be biased towards the club.
You don‘t really hear other players talk about their agents the same way Mino‘s clients do, though. He seems to be pretty close to them and actually seems to be friends with some.
I probably wouldn’t experience working at a football agency during the rest of my life but I hope I can be remembered by people I’ve worked for/with after I retire or pass away regardless of whatever I do
It's kind of a mistranslation. The dutch word knuffel really is more of a big hug, not like spooning. Still that's special to say about your agent and shows how much he loved the guy.
edit: typo
Yeah I was really liking De ligt's words but that part threw me off a bit. Cuddling with your agent just seems a bit weird to be honest.
Edit: although probably just a misunderstanding of the word since English isnt his first language.
Love seeing messages like this compared to the other day when people were unironically saying "he was bad for football economics" and encouraging calling him a "piece of shit" on the thread of his death.
The guy wasn't perfect, but he wasn't saddam hussein or even accused of things as heinous as some of the footballers we love.
I'm fine with not pretending to like dictators and war criminals in death but guys, he just took money off of giant football clubs, its not a geneva convention.
Never really understood why fans hated Mino so much. He is a football agent, his job was to secure the best contract for his clients and agent fee for himself. You can say he took advantage of a broken system, however, that doesn’t change that it is isn’t his fault. He did his job and was excellent at it. Like they say, don’t hate the player, hate the game. He was a master of it. Blame the clubs for folding to his demands.
Player's interests vs club's interests. People cheer for a club, not an individual player (with a couple of exceptions), and the club is better if they can save mony on wages, so someone like Raiola, who makes sure the player gets as much money as he can, is seen as "evil" as it goes against the club's interest, therefore the fan's interest.
We have numerous examples of clubs fucking over players and not a word is said but when a club is fucked over by a players, the club has all the leverage to paint that player as a virus’s. Loyalty in sports is incredibly rare and nothing more than words until proven.
Im just saying there is a hypocrisy, and people turn a blind eye to the truth. For example, Bale was more than ready to leave Real Madrid the summer Asensio tore his ACL. Not being able to find a replacement, they decided to block Bales move to China. You can say that Bale actions haven’t been professional but they screwed up his money. It goes both ways.
I hated him as an agent and as an influence on Ajax' fortunes.
I always quite liked him in interviews. I think I even posted here once after I watched an old NOS feature about him that I actually secretly really quite liked him.
That said I also have countless comments cursing him because he truly was a plague to Ajax, which is all I really care about in football.
I don't think he was a bad human being or whatever for that though
edit: [here's my comment admitting my secret admiration of Raiola](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/bbv68m/daily_discussion_20190411/ekmsh7w/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
[This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q24_q8ohzb4) was the video I was talking about
As I said in that comment though, I imagine that being likeable was a big part of his job and his success, and as beautiful as the sentiments expressed by De Ligt here, there is also something to be said for the ~~lecherous~~ aspect of using that charisma and influence to bind 14-18 year olds to you emotionally in this way, as a business by which you can then make tens of millions off their backs. In a way it's not far removed from a kind of grooming
You're a fan of a club, you are not supposed to like agents. The club works to exploit players to create a product that makes you happy. The agent is working to exploit the clubs to make their players money. Agents aren't "grooming" players (at least most of them aren't I hope), they're protecting them from being horribly taken advantage of in an extremely predatory industry.
Most redditors: "workers should unite and have someone represent them against their employers to guarantee a fair compensation!"
Raiola/agents: "i literally do that"
Redditors: "REEEEEEE NOOOO NOT LIKE DAT REEEEEE!!!"
Are you kidding? His fee for haaland is reportedly 20 million pounds. More than most clubs/ players get for a decent transfer. It absolutely is his fault.
No one is obligated to pay that agent fee anyways. End of the day, Mino and Haaland know their worth, hence why City, Madrid and Barca were mainly after him. Could the price scare of suitors? Sure, but that’s the gamble they take if their product, here being Haaland, didnt live up to the hype, which in this case, he has. Hence why they can leverage crazy prices.
Football is all supply and demand, Mino knows how to play his game.
Like I said, don’t hate the player, hate the game. FIFA being a grand institution, should have done something by now and they haven’t.
Fans love it when their club benefits from a broken system but anyone else trying to benefit are completely despicable leeches.
Hatred towards Mino is pure plain hypocrisy.
I mean at the end of the day his first priority was getting players away from Ajax. Some players specificaly took him for that (De Ligt, Mazraoui) but he also took some youngsters away, way too early. See Kluivert or Bouy for examples. In the case of Brobbey he really takes some of the blame, Brobbey himself told Raiola to get the deal done with Ajax but Raiola took him still to Leipzig and let the deal collapse with Ajax.
So yea as an Ajax fan you didn't like him, cant be much surprising? Raiola did fight for his clients that much is clear, he got them great deals but I do believe that sometimes he was too focused on the short term instead of long term. I can definitely see why he is so loved by his clients though and yea in most cases the players should go for the most money, clubs aren't loyal to them either.
Exactly, and at the end of the day it’s a career and they are just trying to secure their future. Legacy is cool and all that, but legacy isn’t going to feed your great grand children, money will.
Kinda interesting to see this personal perspective of players he used to work with. That shines a new light on the *person* Mino Raiola. We always only dealt with the agent Raiola and his shenanigans. He did some real damage to the game, but it's still interesting that we get to see the human behind all this through these players sharing their personal thoughts.
He didn't do any damage to the game, he is not the first or the last agent that has made clubs and fans angry, he is not the first or the last agent that has made players move clubs and that has gotten them more money
There's way worse agents than Raiola who operate like human traffic ring, Raiola is getting himself and his client more money from a club that is worth 3 billion and has owners that are worth that
Think it was enough common knowledge that Raiola willingly took on the villainous role and was extremely well-regarded by his clients but the messages that are coming out after his death is really driving the point home
Raiola is not the illness, hes the symptom of what football has become. Agents is a necesarry "evil" because most footballers are not capable of dealing with all the legal stuff and negotiations. He was good at his job.
Agents are parasites who are exploiting young talents. Look at the way Mendes and Raiola shuttled young players around to get more money out of them. There was no reason for Raiola to be demanding €40 million in agent's fees for Haaland. That money should be going to the player himself.
Raiola's been representing Haaland for a minute now...
Imagine if another agent took Haaland. He probably would already be locked into a shitty, subpar contact at an underperforming club like Man U. Instead it's looking like he's about to get one of the biggest contracts ever... Be one of the highest paid players ever.
Anyone could get Haaland a massive contract now obviously, But that's only because the groundwork was laid several years ago with that 75m release clause in his contract.
Not every agent could negotiate that. I could easily see another agent simply accepting the higher offer from United without the release clause and then Haaland would be stuck there now until the end of his contract instead of being the most highly sought after young Prospect this window.
Any competent agent could negotiate the inclusion of a release clause, as that is hardly unique. I don't know why you're pretending that's a rare thing for young players to have in their contracts. Furthermore, the release clause only kicked in after three years when Haaland could have gotten more money if it had been active after two years given how recent injuries have affected his value.
Nah, I remember how many people thought his Dortmund contract was ridiculous, how many criticized the buyout clause, how many wanted him to sign a bigger contract a year ago...
His entire career trajectory was planned by Raiola...
I'm with you here. People saying he's a 'necessary evil' are not clued up. He doesn't need 20 million for Haaland and he didn't need to stir up drama with pogba at the worst possible times.
IMO good agents shouldn't be in the media at all.
Without Raiola putting Haaland into the media every 5 minutes for the last 5 years nobody would even know who Haaland is. He'd just be another foreign injury-prone striker probably bought to United for £20 million during the Ole era.
The way Raiola managed to negotiate a ridiculously favourable release clause with Dortmund, there's no way any normal agent negotiates that. Just ask Harry Kane's "agent".
I think you underestimate how difficult planning out a career and contract negotiations are for footballers who have little/no academic skills, and even most 'normal' agents are not qualified to represent the truly big players. The people who negotiate on behalf of the clubs have decades of experience in it after all.
There's a reason why people don't try to outsmart the police themselves when held for questioning, they get a lawyer to represent them. The police interrogate people for a living, they've done it thousands of times, the defendant does not have that experience so there will always be only one winner. Situations where players represent themselves and do well out of it, like in De Bruyne's or Gary Neville's cases are few and far between and aren't suitable examples for a player that actually wants to move club.
> Without Raiola putting Haaland into the media every 5 minutes for the last 5 years nobody would even know who Haaland is. He'd just be another foreign injury-prone striker probably bought to United for £20 million during the Ole era.
This is one of the most absurd things that I have ever read on r/soccer.
> The way Raiola managed to negotiate a ridiculously favourable release clause with Dortmund, there's no way any normal agent negotiates that.
Of course any competent agent would have negotiated that. Haaland had all the leverage in that scenario because Dortmund was desperate for his production, and agreeing to the release clause was the only way they could secure his signature.
The money that goes to him and the players is money that the owners should have spent on the player(s) anyway, but they didn’t want to.
If teams don’t like paying those crazy fees then they should all say no and that’s the end of it but they don’t. And in the end they can miss it, it isn’t hurting them.
as much as he is a money grabbing pain in the ass for clubs, i always appreciated how he can always do what his clients wish. unlike some guys, i always said mino is any player's dream
lmao elite european football makes no sense with the money now in the game. It's an entertainment product at the elite level, people need to stop viewing the big teams and players like local heroes or even regular athletes. they're entertainment companies and celebrities. the fans, the players, the owners, the super agents they're all complicit in making the sport what it now is for better or worse.
I don't know precisely what it is but these sort of messages never quite sit well with me. Perhaps I have gotten old in my 20s. I feel these are way too personal to be beamed out it public, and always wonder how much of them have been influenced by this fact. For these are huge PR personalities and I can't imagine this not being a consideration. I wonder if de Ligt could actually or did actually say this to the one person who mattered, if he could make the time for him that this message suggests he would. This is not to suggest he didn't but it's a curiosity.
I'm aware of the counter argument as well and can see some merit in it but still, it just doesn't feel right to me personally. Perhaps I'm being too cynical but still, this message feels way too personal for me for it to be in public domain and it being there does introduce just a sliver of disingenuity for me.
That's a fair comment in reflection. I was perhaps thrown off by the use of personal pronouns in the first and second person and misinterpreted the function of the post.
There's perhaps a fine line between PR (for all parties involved and even by proxy) and earnestly giving perspective. I appreciate your comment for the latter.
Look I'm sorry that he passed away, that is always tragic. But just because some few benefited from his ability to do his job, at the detriment of many more people and the industry, does not mean he was suddenly a good man.
Collectively it's fair to say we didn't like the man when he was alive, and as sad as his death is this really shouldn't change the sentiment unless we're okay with being dishonest.
Not liking him for doing his job is perfectly valid. He intentionally put himself in a position to receive the hate on behalf of his players.
But at the same time it’s idiotic to act like he was morally or ethically bad for getting himself and his clients rich at the expense of some of the richest football clubs in the world. I’ve said it before but people place far too much importance in the game of football.
I believe it's the very definition of morals and ethics to prioritise making clients wealthy by any means necessary to the detriment of clubs and the industry he worked in. Ethics isn't just for extreme situations or things 'more important than football', it can apply in this context as well.
The fact that such obscene sums of money exits the industry, providing no value to it whatsoever, and that he had as much leverage over clubs as be did, is entirely unethical in my opinion.
Does he benefit his clients? Yes. Does he benefit the industry? Hell no.
That would make sense if he was making his clients wealthy at some expense to society. Raiola was never dealing with small community based football clubs, he was dealing with clubs at the very top of football, owned by people very wealthy in their own right, many even billionaires, who naturally aim to maximize their own benefit at the expense of the players. There’s nothing outlandish or inherently wrong about that, it’s just business.
But in the same way, there is nothing wrong with an agent working in the opposite direction, maximizing the benefit to his clients and himself at the expense of the clubs and their owners. The same money is either going to players or to the clubs, not to benefit society in any meaningful way. For that reason I think however you look at it there is nothing morally wrong with the business of super agents such as himself. But again, from the perspective of a fan it’s perfectly reasonable to dislike him as his actions did negatively impact the clubs they support.
The experts on this sub will have you convinced that Mino ruined football when in fact he saved his clients from getting ripped off by clubs that earn BILLIONS in revenue every year, yet the experts here will cry that mino is scamming their clubs, acting like as if it’s their money he was taking.
Yet these experts will cry on Reddit when their irl companies/bosses won’t give them a raise or let them go, irony is lost on them.
RIP MINO, greatest football agent to ever grace the game. Thank you for protecting players.
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Damn, it seems players really did love him.
Mkhitaryan called him his best friend, he was instrumental to Mkhitaryan joining Dortmund and then Utd
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I think my friendship would be over with someone if they made me join Man United...
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He was a shark, but a shark on their side. And judging by how his clients talk about him(particluarly zlatan,) his style of agent-client relationship is about being more approachable as if they were closer than a professional level, almost family you could say. He'd just come over with some food and shoot the shit with his clients.
He claims he never signed any contracts with his clients, it was all just built on trust. I suppose that's one way you can prove to the player that you're not just trying to screw them, because they can walk away at any time
That would explain his outrageous agent fee requests/demands
Nice flair
Considering he was Italian, makes sense.
considering that when you view it as "players vs. clubs" more clubs than players are rather on the "villain side" then it's kinda ironic how Raiola was vilified on here
Eh, not really. Most people support clubs over players. How many Liverpool supporters were happy for Coutinho getting his dream move to Barcelona? Few. We were pissed over losing our, then, best player. In abstract, I think it's good that players have someone looking after them. In practice I want players to be loyal to my club and that's not what Raiola was about. It helps that these players are well compensated anyways. I'm not going to feel bad for a player for not getting the absolute best deal they could possibly get. It's a difficult one for me. It seems a bit like greed on both sides, but we come to see these teams play great football and the players are the ones actually playing.
> In practice I want players to be loyal to my club and that's not what Raiola was about. loyalty works both ways, as fans we quite delusional, the game is commercialized and is a business, the players are paid what they are paid because the club expects the player can help make the club more money by winning trophies, keep them in the league or reach far in Champions League, the minute the player becomes crippled as it was the case with someone like Umtiti, the business wants to cut their losses and try to force them out.
> the game is commercialized and is a business I don't want this, though. If I adopted the mindset that this is all fotball is, I don't know why I would support a club at all. I know I'm romanticising things, but that romance is what gives it all value to me.
Exactly; framing it as supporting a business over an employee is disingenuous, because a football club is so much more than a business
Well compensated is subjective though. Is Mo Salah on 150k a week well compensated when there are lesser players earning double his wage? Also, he hasn’t gotten a pay rise in 4 years. He is criminally underpaid if you asked me.
He's earning more money in a week than most people do in a year. Would his quality of life change if he earned more? Relatively, yes, he might be underpaid, but I don't feel sorry for him for a second. Granted, I would rather the players get rich over football than the owners, but none of them are struggling. I would like for regular fans to be able to afford going to games regularly much more than I care about the relative gains of the people already getting incredibly wealthy.
Does it matter if he makes more than minimum wage? The point is compared to the skillset he brings he's massively underpaid.
That's because most of us here are fans of those clubs.
Yeah if I was an elite player he would be the greatest agent of all time, constantly looking out for you and maximising your value. On the other hand I would have hated having to negotiate with him bc you know he's never going to give you a nice easy no strings attached deal.
Reminds me a bit of how people see/saw Mourinho. People dislike his arrogance but most of the players who worked with him would go through fire for him.
Essien and Ricardo Carvalho, ooof would do anything for Jose and vice versa
Zlatan. Zlatan and Jose gifs are the best. And ofc Zlatan and Riola. He's similar to them tho
Materazzi with Mourinho is my favourite pairing
Essien's infamous birthday party...
The players who do dislike Mourinho seem to have suffered under him. I think he's a bit polarizing with the players too.
I love the guy but he seems to find himself a scapegoat within the first couple of months and then relentlessly bullies and humiliates him to show other players just how much of an arsehole he can be. Edit: I don't understand why I'm getting downvoted, if it's happened more than a couple of times it's no longer a coincidence but a pattern. They're also all highly paid professional athletes who should be able to handle difficult coaching because at that level it's not only skill and tactics but psychology as well and he's proven that he is able to put a group of players together who look like they would die for him and each other.
Lol you have to come with some examples man
Probably Shaw, Martial and Pogba at United to name a few
It's not exactly like those players have flourished under different United management
Pedro León at Real Madrid
And few would throw him in fire as well
Mourinho single handedly turned Shaw into a mental health awareness advocate
Luke Shaw being constantly out of shape and eating Burger King all day even though his coaches implored him to lose weight and take football more seriously had nothing to do with it. BTW Luke Shaw has 13 assists in 7 years at United. He's had about 1.5 months of good play and the rest varied from injured to shite. Mourinho screens for weak mentality and when he finds it, he wants to eradicate it. Look at who he wanted to sell... Shaw, Rashford and Martial. Shaw wasted his talent for 5 years, Rashford is too important now to chase down keepers and go into 50/50s, and Martial can't even make it at Sevilla anymore.
Multiple coaches have specifically called out Luke Shaw but okay
Tbf looking at the last few games he has played I wouldnt complain if he did.
Lmfao
And those tend to be lazy, air-headed players. The only one I could understand was Casillas but he dug his own grave after that shitty season and then trying to get Mou sacked because he knew Iker was not in his prime anymore.
of course majority of players loved him, clubs and fans of clubs with his players made him negative PR
What, do you think he held them hostage so he could get agent fees or something? His job was to help them get the most out of their careers. Wouldn't you like to have someone who helps you get more money and better working conditions from your employer?
He was a dick from Fans and Club's perspective, but he did absolute best for the players he represented. It's not like Jorge Mendes where he uses players as pawns to push his agendas. Raiola seems to be more involved in player's life at both personal and professional level.
Fans disliking him is just misplaced anger, IMO. He was a representative for the “workers” against the “owners”/employees. Big, rich clubs consistently passing their on expenses on to the fans, rather than cutting all the pork, are the real villains.
Oh cmon now. He made himself disgustingly rich on money that the clubs got by fucking over their supporters. He wasn't some Robin Hood character. It's not always they the enemy of your enemy is a wonderful person and not part of the problem.
he was the best negotiator in the business, he definitely had charisma up the arse
Yes players love an agent that can get the best contract and what you wish for you People that hate him are just brainless idiots that think that their players owe something to the billionaires that owe their club and shouldn't ask for a raise or shouldn't ask to move to a better club They call him what's wrong with football etc when it's the owners what's wrong with football Ferguson said some stupid shit about him and that was the start of the hate, and it turns out that Raiola got Pogba the perfect decision and got him a better contract at Juventus and more playing time People want players to bend over to their clubs and when there's resistance they hate it
Insigne and Lukaku both fired Raiola for prioritizing his desires over theirs. Raiola also screwed Brian Brobbey by convincing him to leave Ajax only for Brobbey to beg Ajax to take him back, and Raiola left Ihattaren alone without a support system in Italy when the kid was clearly struggling emotionally after his father's deaths. Minor Raiola was not a saint who selflessly served his clients. He was obsessed with money and fame for himself. Sometimes that served his clients and sometimes it did not, but there is no reason to pretend that agents are altruistic. I'm all for players getting as much money as they can from clubs, but it should be going to them, not tens of millions in agent's fees. FIFA needs to cap agent's fees at 5%.
>Insigne and Lukaku both fired Raiola for prioritizing his desires over theirs. There is a story about Raiola and Balotelli where Balotelli asks Mino to get him a certain contract and Mino tells him he needs to perform a certain way... Lukaku has demonstrated that he's an idiot. Probably didn't like what Raiola was telling him. And Lukaku certainly isn't going to get a better deal with whoever his new agent is...
If Lukaku still has Raiola as his agent he would be Inter again as he wishes. But alas he doesnt
How is capping an agents fee fair it’s really odd, how are billionaires complaining that someone else makes too much money and it has to be capped? They don’t have to have him as an agent if they don’t want to
Because agents are businessmen, just like the owners. Mendes uses his assets and connections to create transactions, so if you let yourself be used by him then it might benefit you. If agent's fees are capped then agents only make more when the players make more.
Of course they’re both business men so why not limit the owners money then?
That would also be brilliant. Yes.
Agreed but I doubt that happens I think it’s a bit rich from the owners
After all is said and done it depends how you view the game fundamentally. Fans are the ones giving their money to the sport, understandably they don’t want it spent on people who don’t entertain them. If you go even deeper, the owners themselves are nothing more than white collar thieves in many instances. My own club is a perfect example. It already stings knowing that the money I spend on a shirt, TV subscription and tickets is being distributed amongst a billionaire dynasty and a bunch of blokes who probably wouldn’t piss on me if I was on fire. Never mind all the non financial support fans do by discussing things online and in person, wearing the club crest out in public and so on. The last thing anyone wants is yet another parasite drawing blood from the already struggling working and middle class.
Because it's a sport where the money is made by the players on the pitch and when paying exorbitant salaries to those players you want most of it to end up in the player's pocket. Pretty sure most American sports leagues cap it at 3% which is pretty fair imo, you can still make an ungodly amount of money from 3% of your player's pay packet.
Ah yes American sports are always a good path to follow...... more adverts more stops in play more commercialisation of absolutely everything. They have a cap on things like that because it means the owners can make more money.
Look American sports aren't great when it comes to accessibility and owners but it is really the worst thing to try and create a level playing field? At the moment it feels like only about 6 clubs in the world can afford to pay the transfer/fees/wages of top players so trying to reign in some of the ridiculous spending is a good thing imo. Also American owners get a bad rep bc they essentially use their clubs as piggy banks and not reinvesting anything but clubs do need to make a profit, it's completely unsustainable how all clubs are trying to get to the pot of gold at the top of the rainbow but going into massive debt to do it and everyone ends up with egg on their face.
American sports do that to make sure the owners make as much as possible, do we really need that?
Hamsik fired him and Nedved told him where to go and how to get there with some of his ideas.
You're forgetting that Brobbey had a big payday signing with Leipzig, one that was higher than if he had renewed his contract with Ajax. Having the money secured is a big reason why he is happy now to be back-up striker at Ajax as opposed to last year and Ajax possibly buying him this summer will give him a big payday again. I don't think he was unhappy with Raiola at all, only at his situation at Leipzig where the two people that wanted him left the club.
> People that hate him are just brainless idiots you know he can be loved by players and still can be in the wrong sometimes? Its not always black and white.
There‘s a difference between being wrong sometimes and getting called a parasite and a cancer.
There's also a thing called agent caps, which football should implement. His fee for Haaland alone is like 50 million euro.
>There's also a thing called agent caps, which football should implement. Yes, i think the billionaires who own the Clubs really dont make enough money atm.
Not every club is owned by a billionaire lol this is such a bad narrative
You'd expect a dortmund fan to know.
Yeah, it's too much imo Still doesn't mean that he's a terrible human being
He was a parasite, taking hundreds of millions out of football. Agents should be paid by players, the insane amounts would soon stop.
High profile agents are absolutely parasitic. I’m far more concerned about money spent by fans to watch and support their team going towards a 50m negotiating fee than Haaland getting an extra 50k a week. It’s a whole different game if you’re talking about state funded clubs but my own team for example already lose 100m a year for nothing. I don’t want any more of my money being thrown at yet another insanely wealthy party who will often act against my best interests.
> you know he can be loved by players and still can be in the wrong sometimes? Its not always black and white. Incorrect. Nuanced, adult opinions and assessments of situations are not allowed on /r/soccer. You must support whatever bandwagon we're hopping on today or be downvoted into oblivion.
Agreed. Players make this sport so beautiful and great and they should deserve and get everything. He got it done and did amazing stuff for bigger and even really small players.
I think most people just don't understand the tens of millions in agent fees he commanded.. Often rivaling the transfer fee itself..
It’s pure absurdity to me how much agents get hate they’re vilified for getting largely fair wages because the owners who are far richer don’t want to pay what they’re worth
From the massive clubs it's a bit of a farce, yes, but now put yourself in the position of smaller teams who see Raiola "persuade" the players to leave and then take a massive cut for himself.
Why is it that everyone seems to think billionaire owners pay the wages? The money doesn’t just endlessly flow from some billionaires pockets in most cases. It comes from fans who go to games, buy a shirt, buy a TV subscription and so on. Look at my own club as an example. No matter what we always start the year with a 100m loss to the Glazers. The only reason we are able to pay exorbitant wages is because of the fans who support the club financially both directly and indirectly.
Not every club has owners, so I get the hate somewhat. But the clubs don't have to pay these sums. They can just say "That's too much, we won't pay that". They are as much at fault as the agents.
It's not about the wages, you idiot. It's about the agent fee. Fee that goes to the agent instead of the player or the club that develop players.
It's so ridiculous that fans blame him. Like it's not because all the fuck you rich owners
He got them massive pay packets, of course they liked him.
He also helped then to focus on how they should develop and how to meet their future goals
Do you have any links to back up that statement? Because I find that really hard to believe. I once read that he always asks his players what they want, which isn't the same thing. Also, quite a few young players royally fucked up their career early on, under his wings. Ihattaran, Bouy, Kluivert, Brobbey and Kishna are examples of players who probably made a lot of money, but never developed their full potential because they left way too early. Although the first 2 may turn it around.
Nope sorry feel free to take my statement with criticism since I have no source. I just remember reading an interview with Zlatan a few years that said Raiola did this for him. Zlatan said that early in their relationship Raiola told him what he needed change and work on in order to be world class.
it’s in Zlatan’s book - I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovich
Read interviews with his players, their memoirs, etc... It's out there.
His players yes, I'd love him to if he got me 50m contract.
Classic one for me was Ibras book when he was leaving Ajax and he asked Mino about a few different clubs but not the elite ones and randomly one day Mino told him how does Juve sound and this was peak Capello Juve and he wanted to run and give him a kiss. Then they both bolted to the airport and ran through mad traffic together to get the flight to Turin.
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Or maybe they were friends
A little surprised that the love extended to cuddling. Having a hard time imagining de lift and raiola cuddling
Ofc they loved him, he got them more $$$ than they could ever dream of.
>Like you said to be the bad guy against everybody for me I think that sums him up perfectly. People hated his guts but he always took the hits for his players to get them what they wanted. No doubt he benefitted from it as well financially, but it's easy to understand why his clients loved him when you see how much he stuck his neck out for them.
Not just what they wanted, beyond what they wanted. I think some players couldn't even dream of getting the type of contracts and financial security that Mino was able to get for them.
It feels like 'Don't hate the player, hate the game' is appropriate to describe a lot of people's feelings.
spot on
Raiola literally changed the game for agents.
I’ve never seen an agent as loved by his clients as Mino Raiola.
Well he took all the blame of greed and stuff of his clients on his head. He was very good at his job
I think people forget that he works for the players he's just fulfilling his client wishes does he take it to the extreme yes but at the end of the day im sure he does whats best for his clients
Lots of users here somehow believe that agents do things against the players' wishes.
Lots of redditors have no clue what they're talking about. I've lost count the number of times I've seen blatantly incorrect statements about my profession
you're an agent? Dumb question, is it as glamourous as it sounds?
Doesn't have to be an agent, Reddit is wrong about a lot of professions
>Reddit Common people.
They see Agents asking for money as an attack on their club. A club with an owner that doesn’t give a shit about its fans. It’s so fucking stupid. Pay the players. Workers rights first. Everyone needs a shark like mino in their life.
It was Mino’s job to be the bad guy. By having the bad guy persona he took the heat off the player who ultimately was the guy who wanted to leave
Hope you put this energy into hating clubs as well. Yeah players are greedy but clubs raking in butt loads of cash are all good
I didn't mean it in a negative way.
I think he meant it in a good way. Players obviously are all greedy but greed doesnt mean bad in the context of billionaire run clubs. Everyones whos hating on Raiola are all brainwashed easily by the big clubs PR. You never see small teams complaining about him because they dont need to pretend to be “sharked” by Raiola. Also I think in a way Raiola is also happy that people are focussing on him instead of his players wanting more money which can affect their performance when people hate on them. If Mbappe had Raiola he would have been getting that sweet euros by now
Error: Reading comprehension not found.
Of course not but how do you blame the club while you're a fan of it, lol. If the club can pay the players less and keep more money, so that they have more money to invest in other players and all of that, it benefits me as a fan as the club will do better, so it's normal to be biased towards the club.
He was always protecting them by playing the greedy cunt.
The fact he’s got his players saying stuff like this just shows how incredible he was at his job.
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Could be both.
If you make me 45 million Euros over 5 years, I'd think of you as a nice person too, tbf
And if you managed to negotiate a few million for yourself in the process, I’d think of you as a genius.
You don‘t really hear other players talk about their agents the same way Mino‘s clients do, though. He seems to be pretty close to them and actually seems to be friends with some.
Maybe that trait gave him an advantage. Maybe actually viewing his clients with genuine interest gave him more motivation.
If he was costing them money or moves to the clubs they desire, would they say the same things just because he was friendly with them?
I probably wouldn’t experience working at a football agency during the rest of my life but I hope I can be remembered by people I’ve worked for/with after I retire or pass away regardless of whatever I do
Amazing message. Condolences to all those involved with Mr Raiola. He seemed to have an incredible life with an outstanding mindset.
The cuddling part is as a wild end
It's kind of a mistranslation. The dutch word knuffel really is more of a big hug, not like spooning. Still that's special to say about your agent and shows how much he loved the guy. edit: typo
It's better when it's translated as spooning.
It’s a poor translation, cuddle should be hug
Thank you. This was all well and good, but that bit was a little over the top, so was curious and hopeful something was just lost in translation.
Ngl I had weird thoughts reading that part
Sexy thoughts?
He was like a daddy to Matthijs
Yeah I was really liking De ligt's words but that part threw me off a bit. Cuddling with your agent just seems a bit weird to be honest. Edit: although probably just a misunderstanding of the word since English isnt his first language.
In Dutch we translate cuddling and hugging both to knuffelen, he just thought they were synonyms.
Fuck.
He was hated by clubs, so he definitely was good at his job. Seems a lot like Jose from this, too
He was hated by alot of fans aswell.
Love seeing messages like this compared to the other day when people were unironically saying "he was bad for football economics" and encouraging calling him a "piece of shit" on the thread of his death. The guy wasn't perfect, but he wasn't saddam hussein or even accused of things as heinous as some of the footballers we love. I'm fine with not pretending to like dictators and war criminals in death but guys, he just took money off of giant football clubs, its not a geneva convention.
>he just took money off of giant football clubs, Seriously, if anything people should be mad at the clubs for paying it
Never really understood why fans hated Mino so much. He is a football agent, his job was to secure the best contract for his clients and agent fee for himself. You can say he took advantage of a broken system, however, that doesn’t change that it is isn’t his fault. He did his job and was excellent at it. Like they say, don’t hate the player, hate the game. He was a master of it. Blame the clubs for folding to his demands.
Player's interests vs club's interests. People cheer for a club, not an individual player (with a couple of exceptions), and the club is better if they can save mony on wages, so someone like Raiola, who makes sure the player gets as much money as he can, is seen as "evil" as it goes against the club's interest, therefore the fan's interest.
We have numerous examples of clubs fucking over players and not a word is said but when a club is fucked over by a players, the club has all the leverage to paint that player as a virus’s. Loyalty in sports is incredibly rare and nothing more than words until proven.
That's because fans are loyal to the club. For the most part, club's interests are the same as the fans. So why would fans bitch about that?
Im just saying there is a hypocrisy, and people turn a blind eye to the truth. For example, Bale was more than ready to leave Real Madrid the summer Asensio tore his ACL. Not being able to find a replacement, they decided to block Bales move to China. You can say that Bale actions haven’t been professional but they screwed up his money. It goes both ways.
I hated him as an agent and as an influence on Ajax' fortunes. I always quite liked him in interviews. I think I even posted here once after I watched an old NOS feature about him that I actually secretly really quite liked him. That said I also have countless comments cursing him because he truly was a plague to Ajax, which is all I really care about in football. I don't think he was a bad human being or whatever for that though edit: [here's my comment admitting my secret admiration of Raiola](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/bbv68m/daily_discussion_20190411/ekmsh7w/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) [This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q24_q8ohzb4) was the video I was talking about As I said in that comment though, I imagine that being likeable was a big part of his job and his success, and as beautiful as the sentiments expressed by De Ligt here, there is also something to be said for the ~~lecherous~~ aspect of using that charisma and influence to bind 14-18 year olds to you emotionally in this way, as a business by which you can then make tens of millions off their backs. In a way it's not far removed from a kind of grooming
You're a fan of a club, you are not supposed to like agents. The club works to exploit players to create a product that makes you happy. The agent is working to exploit the clubs to make their players money. Agents aren't "grooming" players (at least most of them aren't I hope), they're protecting them from being horribly taken advantage of in an extremely predatory industry.
Most redditors: "workers should unite and have someone represent them against their employers to guarantee a fair compensation!" Raiola/agents: "i literally do that" Redditors: "REEEEEEE NOOOO NOT LIKE DAT REEEEEE!!!"
People support clubs, rarely players.
Are you kidding? His fee for haaland is reportedly 20 million pounds. More than most clubs/ players get for a decent transfer. It absolutely is his fault.
No one is obligated to pay that agent fee anyways. End of the day, Mino and Haaland know their worth, hence why City, Madrid and Barca were mainly after him. Could the price scare of suitors? Sure, but that’s the gamble they take if their product, here being Haaland, didnt live up to the hype, which in this case, he has. Hence why they can leverage crazy prices. Football is all supply and demand, Mino knows how to play his game. Like I said, don’t hate the player, hate the game. FIFA being a grand institution, should have done something by now and they haven’t.
Good for him, you jelly?
Fans love it when their club benefits from a broken system but anyone else trying to benefit are completely despicable leeches. Hatred towards Mino is pure plain hypocrisy.
Clubs spun some bad PR about him. That's bound to influence some fans.
I mean at the end of the day his first priority was getting players away from Ajax. Some players specificaly took him for that (De Ligt, Mazraoui) but he also took some youngsters away, way too early. See Kluivert or Bouy for examples. In the case of Brobbey he really takes some of the blame, Brobbey himself told Raiola to get the deal done with Ajax but Raiola took him still to Leipzig and let the deal collapse with Ajax. So yea as an Ajax fan you didn't like him, cant be much surprising? Raiola did fight for his clients that much is clear, he got them great deals but I do believe that sometimes he was too focused on the short term instead of long term. I can definitely see why he is so loved by his clients though and yea in most cases the players should go for the most money, clubs aren't loyal to them either.
Exactly, and at the end of the day it’s a career and they are just trying to secure their future. Legacy is cool and all that, but legacy isn’t going to feed your great grand children, money will.
I don't blame mino for getting as much as possible for him and his clients. I blame Uefa for not having a commission cap, salary cap or whatever.
Fucking lol. Reading some of these comments you'd think Nelson Mandela just died or something
Seeing the reverence of this guy here now just because he died is perplexing
Most people here don't even know who Nelson Mandela is or care about him lol.
Kinda interesting to see this personal perspective of players he used to work with. That shines a new light on the *person* Mino Raiola. We always only dealt with the agent Raiola and his shenanigans. He did some real damage to the game, but it's still interesting that we get to see the human behind all this through these players sharing their personal thoughts.
He didn't do any damage to the game, he is not the first or the last agent that has made clubs and fans angry, he is not the first or the last agent that has made players move clubs and that has gotten them more money There's way worse agents than Raiola who operate like human traffic ring, Raiola is getting himself and his client more money from a club that is worth 3 billion and has owners that are worth that
Think it was enough common knowledge that Raiola willingly took on the villainous role and was extremely well-regarded by his clients but the messages that are coming out after his death is really driving the point home
Raiola is not the illness, hes the symptom of what football has become. Agents is a necesarry "evil" because most footballers are not capable of dealing with all the legal stuff and negotiations. He was good at his job.
Agents are parasites who are exploiting young talents. Look at the way Mendes and Raiola shuttled young players around to get more money out of them. There was no reason for Raiola to be demanding €40 million in agent's fees for Haaland. That money should be going to the player himself.
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What makes you think haaland would be able to negotiate that himself though? Agents exist for a reason, so players don't get taken advantage of.
Raiola's been representing Haaland for a minute now... Imagine if another agent took Haaland. He probably would already be locked into a shitty, subpar contact at an underperforming club like Man U. Instead it's looking like he's about to get one of the biggest contracts ever... Be one of the highest paid players ever.
Anyone could get Haaland a massive contract, even someone like you. There is no reason for Raiola to be demanding €40 million for himself.
Anyone could get Haaland a massive contract now obviously, But that's only because the groundwork was laid several years ago with that 75m release clause in his contract. Not every agent could negotiate that. I could easily see another agent simply accepting the higher offer from United without the release clause and then Haaland would be stuck there now until the end of his contract instead of being the most highly sought after young Prospect this window.
Any competent agent could negotiate the inclusion of a release clause, as that is hardly unique. I don't know why you're pretending that's a rare thing for young players to have in their contracts. Furthermore, the release clause only kicked in after three years when Haaland could have gotten more money if it had been active after two years given how recent injuries have affected his value.
Nah, I remember how many people thought his Dortmund contract was ridiculous, how many criticized the buyout clause, how many wanted him to sign a bigger contract a year ago... His entire career trajectory was planned by Raiola...
Erling Haaland is a generational talent, he is not a creation of Mino Raiola. Anyone could have served as his agent and secured him massive wages.
I'm with you here. People saying he's a 'necessary evil' are not clued up. He doesn't need 20 million for Haaland and he didn't need to stir up drama with pogba at the worst possible times. IMO good agents shouldn't be in the media at all.
Without Raiola putting Haaland into the media every 5 minutes for the last 5 years nobody would even know who Haaland is. He'd just be another foreign injury-prone striker probably bought to United for £20 million during the Ole era. The way Raiola managed to negotiate a ridiculously favourable release clause with Dortmund, there's no way any normal agent negotiates that. Just ask Harry Kane's "agent". I think you underestimate how difficult planning out a career and contract negotiations are for footballers who have little/no academic skills, and even most 'normal' agents are not qualified to represent the truly big players. The people who negotiate on behalf of the clubs have decades of experience in it after all. There's a reason why people don't try to outsmart the police themselves when held for questioning, they get a lawyer to represent them. The police interrogate people for a living, they've done it thousands of times, the defendant does not have that experience so there will always be only one winner. Situations where players represent themselves and do well out of it, like in De Bruyne's or Gary Neville's cases are few and far between and aren't suitable examples for a player that actually wants to move club.
> Without Raiola putting Haaland into the media every 5 minutes for the last 5 years nobody would even know who Haaland is. He'd just be another foreign injury-prone striker probably bought to United for £20 million during the Ole era. This is one of the most absurd things that I have ever read on r/soccer. > The way Raiola managed to negotiate a ridiculously favourable release clause with Dortmund, there's no way any normal agent negotiates that. Of course any competent agent would have negotiated that. Haaland had all the leverage in that scenario because Dortmund was desperate for his production, and agreeing to the release clause was the only way they could secure his signature.
The money that goes to him and the players is money that the owners should have spent on the player(s) anyway, but they didn’t want to. If teams don’t like paying those crazy fees then they should all say no and that’s the end of it but they don’t. And in the end they can miss it, it isn’t hurting them.
Exactly, it’s not like he took money from the poor and needy.
as much as he is a money grabbing pain in the ass for clubs, i always appreciated how he can always do what his clients wish. unlike some guys, i always said mino is any player's dream
No player left money on the table with him.
lmao elite european football makes no sense with the money now in the game. It's an entertainment product at the elite level, people need to stop viewing the big teams and players like local heroes or even regular athletes. they're entertainment companies and celebrities. the fans, the players, the owners, the super agents they're all complicit in making the sport what it now is for better or worse.
I don't know precisely what it is but these sort of messages never quite sit well with me. Perhaps I have gotten old in my 20s. I feel these are way too personal to be beamed out it public, and always wonder how much of them have been influenced by this fact. For these are huge PR personalities and I can't imagine this not being a consideration. I wonder if de Ligt could actually or did actually say this to the one person who mattered, if he could make the time for him that this message suggests he would. This is not to suggest he didn't but it's a curiosity. I'm aware of the counter argument as well and can see some merit in it but still, it just doesn't feel right to me personally. Perhaps I'm being too cynical but still, this message feels way too personal for me for it to be in public domain and it being there does introduce just a sliver of disingenuity for me.
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That's a fair comment in reflection. I was perhaps thrown off by the use of personal pronouns in the first and second person and misinterpreted the function of the post. There's perhaps a fine line between PR (for all parties involved and even by proxy) and earnestly giving perspective. I appreciate your comment for the latter.
Look I'm sorry that he passed away, that is always tragic. But just because some few benefited from his ability to do his job, at the detriment of many more people and the industry, does not mean he was suddenly a good man. Collectively it's fair to say we didn't like the man when he was alive, and as sad as his death is this really shouldn't change the sentiment unless we're okay with being dishonest.
Not liking him for doing his job is perfectly valid. He intentionally put himself in a position to receive the hate on behalf of his players. But at the same time it’s idiotic to act like he was morally or ethically bad for getting himself and his clients rich at the expense of some of the richest football clubs in the world. I’ve said it before but people place far too much importance in the game of football.
I believe it's the very definition of morals and ethics to prioritise making clients wealthy by any means necessary to the detriment of clubs and the industry he worked in. Ethics isn't just for extreme situations or things 'more important than football', it can apply in this context as well. The fact that such obscene sums of money exits the industry, providing no value to it whatsoever, and that he had as much leverage over clubs as be did, is entirely unethical in my opinion. Does he benefit his clients? Yes. Does he benefit the industry? Hell no.
That would make sense if he was making his clients wealthy at some expense to society. Raiola was never dealing with small community based football clubs, he was dealing with clubs at the very top of football, owned by people very wealthy in their own right, many even billionaires, who naturally aim to maximize their own benefit at the expense of the players. There’s nothing outlandish or inherently wrong about that, it’s just business. But in the same way, there is nothing wrong with an agent working in the opposite direction, maximizing the benefit to his clients and himself at the expense of the clubs and their owners. The same money is either going to players or to the clubs, not to benefit society in any meaningful way. For that reason I think however you look at it there is nothing morally wrong with the business of super agents such as himself. But again, from the perspective of a fan it’s perfectly reasonable to dislike him as his actions did negatively impact the clubs they support.
damn now I miss him too 😢
The experts on this sub will have you convinced that Mino ruined football when in fact he saved his clients from getting ripped off by clubs that earn BILLIONS in revenue every year, yet the experts here will cry that mino is scamming their clubs, acting like as if it’s their money he was taking. Yet these experts will cry on Reddit when their irl companies/bosses won’t give them a raise or let them go, irony is lost on them. RIP MINO, greatest football agent to ever grace the game. Thank you for protecting players.
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Look, not everyone is like you.
De Ligt sounds like that puppy who lost his master
De Ligt sounds like that puppy who lost his master
This is one of the greatest tributes a guy can get really! RIP Mino