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| Mino Raiola |
Reports of football agent Mino Raiola’s death have been denied in a tweet from his official Twitter account.
Italian media reports on Thursday afternoon claimed the 54-year-old – who represents players like Paul Pogba, Erling Haaland and Zlatan Ibrahimovic – had died.
However, a tweet from Raiola’s official account said: “Current health status for the ones wondering: p***** off second time in 4 months they kill me. Seem also able to resuscitate.”
A tweet from the same account in January said he had undergone medical checks requiring anaesthesia, but that he had not had emergency surgery.
He is reportedly suffering from a lung condition not linked to Covid-19.
Raiola was born in Italy but grew up in the Netherlands, and first stepped into the world of football agency by working on the deal that took Dutch forward Bryan Roy to Italian club Foggia and then acted as an interpreter in Dennis Bergkamp’s move from Ajax to Inter Milan.
Czech star Pavel Nedved became Raiola’s first big-name client, and he has steadily built his reputation in Italian and world football over the years since, and alongside Jorge Mendes is arguably the highest-profile football agent on the planet.
Raiola’s often outspoken approach has not always endeared him to club managers, with former Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer unhappy at what he saw as the Italian stirring up trouble over Pogba’s future.
It was reported in the ‘Football Leaks: The Dirty Business of Football’ book in 2017 that Raiola stood to earn up to £41million from Pogba’s £89million transfer from Juventus to United.
He has criticised plans from FIFA to introduce caps on agents’ fees, which the global governing body says is part of an effort to curb the “excessive and abusive” sums leaving the game in the hands of player representatives.
