Inside the life of Mino Raiola: The full story of pizzas, pound signs and Paul Pogba

IT SEEMS ironic that new 'super agent' Mino Raiola was born on mischief night.

By Jeremy Cross, Chief Sports Writer                     

 

BIG DEAL: Mino Raiola also looks after Mario Balotelli

That's because the man behind the biggest transfer deals of the summer is not afraid to do whatever it takes to get the job done.

It has made him a multi-millionaire following a stunning rise to the top for someone with a huge appetite for food, hard cash and rude behaviour.

In fact, Raiola now appears to be one of the few people on the planet to rival Donald Trump when it comes to dividing opinion.

But how has the man who started life working in his parents' pizza restaurant in Holland cooked up such a storm - one that has left him on the cusp of masterminding the biggest transfer in football history in the shape of Paul Pogba's £112m switch from Juventus to Manchester United?

 

Raiola was Italian born, but moved to Haarlem, Holland with his mum and dad before he was 12 months old. He grew up and worked in the Italian eatery 'Napoli' while enrolling in law school.

But football was his first love - along with table tennis - and when he resigned as a board member of FC Harleem in protest at the committee being 'too conservative', Raiola set about becoming an agent.

He never looked back, joining 'Sports Promotions' to work on deals involving the likes of Bryan Roy, Wim Jonk and a certain Dennis Bergkamp.

He got his first big break while working as a translator in the transfer of Bergkamp to Inter Milan in 1993, when it is claimed he copied important documents, read them then absorbed the information so he could do deals like this one in the future.

He had the taste for success and set-up on his own, with his first major deal seeing Pavel Nedved join Lazio from Sparta Prague.

 

But it was his link-up with Dutch giants Ajax that set him on the road to fame and fortune.

In 2003 he met Zlatan Ibrahimovic in an Amsterdam restaurant. Looking dishevelled and unclean, Raiola ordered enough food to feed five people and proceeded to demolish the whole lot in front of the stunned Swede.

But somehow Ibrahimovic admired how Raiola didn't seem to care what people thought of him and did things in his own inimitable way.

A friendship was spawned that would change both their lives. Ibrahimovic was Raiola's golden ticket to the big-time, someone who let him drive round the streets of Amsterdam in his Porsche while his fixer plotted his multi-million pound move to Juventus.

Ibrahimovic had more big moves, to both Milan clubs, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and now United.

Raiola was a made man. He bought a luxury apartment in Monaco and still lives on the French Riviera.

But while his bank balance changed his attitude and arrogance didn't and he gained enemies as fast as he gained high-profile clients.

The likes of Mario Balotelli, Maxwell, Martin Jol, Romelu Lukaku, Blaise Matuidi, Felipe Mattioni, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pogba joined his growing stable.

Raiola had power and he didn't think twice about using it, throwing his considerable weight around with some of the biggest and most influential people in the game.

 

He has fallen out with Sir Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola, Ajax bosses and Roberto Mancini to name but a few, due to a reputation for being obnoxious and pedantic in equal measure.

Few escape his scorn and he has no time for journalists. One, who shall remain nameless, contacted him to glean some information on Pogba's impending move to United but was given short shrift indeed.

The conversation lasted less than 60 seconds but still included numerous swear words.

But should we be surprised considering Raiola took his inspiration from film character 'Jerry Maguire', whose catchphrase was 'show me the money?'

He has more of it now than he ever dreamt of, with Pogba's move to United set to swell his bank balance by another £20m.

You have to be ruthless to reach the top and love him or loathe him, Raiola has this in spades.