17 Facts About Mino Raiola

Mino Raiola was born in 1967 in Nocera Inferiore, Campania, in southern Italy.

Mino Raiola moved to the Dutch city of Haarlem a year later with his parents.

Mino Raiola started playing football for the youth team of HFC Haarlem, but stopped at age 18 in 1987 to become head of the youth team, and later the club's technical director.

Mino Raiola began working at Sports Promotions, a sports agency company, and assisted in the transfers of several high-profile Dutch players to Italian clubs, including Ajax player Bryan Roy, Marciano Vink, Wim Jonk and Dennis Bergkamp, and Michel Kreek.

Mino Raiola held several of his clients to the standard set by Nedved, an "extremist" who could "train harder than you can imagine".

Mino Raiola instigated Nedved's transfer to Juventus in 2001 and received a commission of six billion lira.

In 2008, Mino Raiola was involved in two disciplinary hearings instigated by the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio for transfer irregularities as part of a wider investigation of professional football by Italian authorities.

On 8 May 2019, the Italian Football Federation banned Mino Raiola from acting as an agent representative for three months for undisclosed reasons, while his cousin Vincenzo Mino Raiola was banned for two months.

Mino Raiola was regularly categorised as being among the richest and most powerful agents in the sport, and upon his death in 2022, Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport described him as "the most powerful, the best, the most discussed".

Mino Raiola was known for his tough negotiation tactics and for frequently defending his clients from criticism.

Mino Raiola described himself as an "altruist" in contrast to fellow agent Jorge Mendes, who he described as an "egoist", due to the differing motivations of both.

Mino Raiola was often characterised as being from the American television programme The Sopranos due to his personality, fashion sense, and attitude, including by Ibrahimovic, and was regularly underestimated due to his appearance.

Mino Raiola's office was based in Monte Carlo and had only four employees and "no traces of luxury", according to Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

Mino Raiola resided in the principality of Monaco with his family.

Mino Raiola spoke seven languages: Italian, English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Dutch.

In January 2022, Mino Raiola was admitted to San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, where he underwent surgery.

Staff of Mino Raiola denied reports he was in intensive care, describing them as "routine checks", and he was discharged ten days later.