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Hardly a season goes by that Mino Raiola is not in the sports headlines for one reason or another.
Soccer’s most notorious ‘super agent’ is well known for being one of the most brash, outspoken and ruthless negotiators out there. Find a high-level soccer coach who has not had a confrontation with him and you will surely have a lot of work.
This week the volcano that is Raiola erupted once again, with the Italian boldly and somewhat surprisingly asserting that Paul Pogba’s time at Old Trafford is now ‘over’, because he says so.
Raiola chose his moment to perfection, following the imposing performance of his client and the wonderful blow against West Ham United. The Italian hardly waited for the dust to settle before publicly declaring: “He has to change teams, he has to change air.”
United are said to be furious and fans have already asked the club to remove Pogba for the next game.
This, however, is nothing new for Raiola. Big, high-value comments against the biggest clubs and biggest names in football come out of his mouth quite regularly. Sportsmail takes a look at some of the best …
Pep Guardiola the ‘coward’
Raiola didn’t think twice when it came to taking on Guardiola, and he certainly didn’t take any hits with his comments.
The pair have had their differences since Guardiola’s days at Barcelona, dating back to the days of Raiola’s client Zlatan Ibrahimovic at the club, more of which later.
So it came as a little surprise when Raiola launched a tirade against Guardiola at City, declaring that none of his superstars would sign for Manchester’s blue side.
Guardiola was branded a ‘bastard’ by Raiola in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, before cementing his point further: ‘Pep Guardiola, the coach, is fantastic. As a person, it is an absolute zero. He’s a coward, a dog.
He is a classic priest. “Do what I tell you, don’t do what I do …”. If Manchester City win the Champions League this season it will emphasize how good a manager he is, but I will hate him.
‘I went for him that night in the halls of Wembley [after Barcelona beat Manchester United in the Champions League final in 2011] – Only Adriano Galliani, president of AC Milan, stopped me. Good luck for Guardiola.
Jurgen Klopp a ‘piece of shit’
When it comes to Premier League managerial royalty, no one is safe.
Klopp found himself in Raiola’s crosshairs shortly after coming to English football, after deciding that Mario Balotelli was out of his plans.
Balotelli was one of Raiola’s early talents, and the couple are closely attached. The Italian forward was told to train alone at the Liverpool base while the club looked for buyers, and this did not sit well with the superagent.
At that time, the Italian outlet Gazzetta dello Sport again brought appointments from Raiola, where he went straight to the throat of the German boss.
Raiola said: ‘At the end of the day, Liverpool managers admitted that Klopp was unfair.
‘I will not judge him as a coach, even if for me he is not a great tactician. It’s not enough to say that Klopp was unfair – he was a piece of shit. ‘
Cruyff’s ‘psychiatric hospital’
The late Johan Cruyff had a rather unceremonious run-in with Raiola during his time at Barcelona, following an unofficial return to the club as an advisor to former president Joan Laporta.
It was both Cruyff and Guardiola who Raiola was targeting, after Ibrahimovic was marginalized from the Barça team and produced the famous phrase that, in him, Guardiola had ‘bought a Ferrari but drove it like a Fiat’.
Cruyff had expressed his disgust about this in the Spanish media, to which Raiola would have responded: “I think Cruyff and Guardiola can go to a psychiatric hospital together, shut up, sit and play cards together.
“They would do a great service to football and Barcelona.”
Paul Scholes clueless
Growing tired of his main client, midfielder Pogba, being criticized by fans and experts alike, it was only when former United stars of yesteryear chimed in that Raiola saw red.
As the 2017-18 season came to a close, Scholes specifically highlighted Pogba’s role in a miserable and rather humiliating 3-2 loss to Brighton, which was struggling to survive in the Premier League.
Scholes opined that Pogba “lacked leadership” and could not take a party and lead it in a certain direction.
Raiola responded on Twitter, saying that Scholes ‘wouldn’t recognize a leader if he was up against Sir Winston Churchill’, prompting another United legend, Gary Neville, to urge Pogba to ‘shut up’ his talkative agent.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s Struggle for Power
Perhaps Raiola’s most infamous clashes in recent times come across Ferguson.
It is no secret in the least that these two men despised each other and refused to do business at all costs if possible.
The upset originally, and now quite ironic, was due to United losing Pogba in a free transfer to Juventus.
Legendary boss Ferguson saw great potential in the Frenchman and was desperate to retain him, and accused Raiola of devising the entire exit strategy.
“Perhaps Ferguson only likes those who obey him,” the agent replied to the Italian media Tuttosport.
“From his dating, I understand that Ferguson still has no idea who Pogba really is.”
Mario Balotelli for the Ballon d’Or
This was less of a public dispute and more of a comment that made the soccer world breathe deeply.
Raiola has always fiercely protected Balotelli at all costs, yet it is universally accepted that the mercurial star has never lived up to expectations.
Undeterred, Raiola decided to make a strange outburst that Balotelli was simply losing the thought process of another of his clients, Ibrahimovic.
Raiola said: “If Mario Balotelli had the head of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Lionel Messi would have fewer Ballon d’Or awards.”
Needless to say, Messi probably didn’t lose an eye because of it.
Kroos enmity
When World Cup winner Toni Kroos strongly linked with a move to Juventus in part in exchange for Pogba following his breakthrough in Italian soccer, Raiola made a strong and immediate exception to Kroos’s brother’s comments. .
Reports claimed Juve had said they wanted 120 million euros and Kroos if Madrid even considered taking Pogba to the Bernabéu, to which his brother Felix fanned the flames and said Kroos was worth the 120 million euros AND Pogba in the top.
It seemed only a matter of time before Raiola intervened, and her answer fell at just the right time.
“Kroos’s brother says it is worth 120 million euros,” he said. “If I were Real Madrid, I would sell Kroos and buy a new team, really.”
Sepp Blatter ‘insane’
Blatter will go on to be one of the most controversial and embarrassed characters in football, and it seems that Raiola was just as disgusted by his ways as everyone else.
The disgraced former FIFA chief was found guilty of infractions surrounding an ‘unfair payment’ of £ 1.3 million ($ 2 million) made to Michel Platini in 2011.
However, before this, upon hearing the news that Blatter was running for re-election by FIFA, Raiola made it known that he was opposed to everything Swiss stood for.
“Sepp Blatter is a mad dictator,” Raiola told the Swedish newspaper Sport-Expressen, as reported by Football Italia.
“It deeply sickens me to think about the re-election of Blatter,” he added, announcing that he would run against him for the presidency.
Italian football and its ‘frightful’ national team
Raiola has had and continues to have many dealings with Italian football.
However, this does not necessarily mean that things are friendly … far from it.
Once again the conflict boiled over around Balotelli, as Raiola rushed to defend his golden boy after he was knocked out of the Italy team in March 2018 ahead of friendlies against England and Argentina.
Raiola, who does not overreact, called the configuration of Italian football horrible and called for a complete overhaul of the structure of national football.
He told Radio 24: ‘I would reboot from the German system.
“We have a similar system to English, where the coach works as a coach, but Di Biagio is not the right person for that.
“In other nations, when the national team plays, it is a party, but for us it is a reason to fight. There is no plan or identity, all we do is change managers.
“The national team should be represented by the best, so if the best don’t go, we don’t understand the criteria.”
Donnarumma’s exit plot
Raiola always strives to protect his client’s best interests, but when Gianluigi Donnarumma decided he would stay at AC Milan, a controversy ensued.
As is his job, Raiola tied up loose ends and signed a new contract, but couldn’t withstand a passing blow to the Italian giants and uproar by claiming that her man should have gone to new pastures.
“Donnarumma made a decision which is to stay in Milan, and I respect that,” Raiola told RAI Sport of Italy.
However, if you asked me to leave, I would immediately work on it because there are important requests.
“In fact, if it were up to me, Gigio would leave Milan.”
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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