Mino Raiola has passed away aged 54 following an illness.
The Italian was one of the biggest football agents in the world, representing Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Paul Pogba, Erling Haaland, Marco Verratti, Moise Kean, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Mario Balotelli any more more high-profile figures.
The news was announced by reporters in Italy on Thursday. It's believed he was battling a lung disease.
Raiola underwent surgery in January after being hospitalised in Italy. The nature of the operation wasn't revealed at the time.
Raiola played a role in many big-money transfers during his successful career, such as Pogba's record-breaking move from Juventus to Manchester United in the summer of 2016.
Raiola's career as agent started in the eighties, brokering Dennis Bergkamp's move from Ajax to Inter Milan in the summer of 1993. He was involved in Robinho's historic move from Real Madrid to Manchester City - the first transfer of the Sheikh Mansour era.
High-profile football agent Mino Raiola has died at the age of 54 following a battle with lung disease.
Raiola, who represented the likes of Paul Pogba, Erling Haaland and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, was admitted to Milan’s San Raffaele hospital on January 12.
Raiola was born in Nocera Inferior Italy in 1967 and emigrated with his family to Haarlem in the Netherlands the following year. A promising footballer growing up, Raiola took over the reins as the head of HFC Haarlem’s youth team aged just 20 in 1987 before beginning his career as a football agent.
Raiola initially worked for Sports Promotions, a sports agent company, and helped broker a number of high-profile transfers involving players switching Dutch for Italian clubs, including the likes of Dennis Bergkamp, Michel Kreek and Bryan Roy. He would go on to represent more than 20 of the game’s top stars across European football and was last year said to be worth around £62million.
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