"Who is your father and where did you come from...?" Not many know that players' transfer is a big mafian game. You got to have big balls to complete a world record transfer and Mino Raiola has those balls... When it comes to the big deals, not many agents can shoulder the responsibilities and the pangs that comes with managing big stars."
The multi-lingual football agent worked his way up from humble beginnings working in a pizza restaurant to become one of the most influential figures in the world game, brokering mega-deals involving some of the most prominent players.
Forbes estimated last year 2021, that Raiola's personal wealth was in the region of £62m
Mino Raiola was born in the south of Italy before moving to Holland as an infant as his parents made a living from a sandwich shop, then a pizzeria, and later an upmarket restaurant.His father, a mechanic, re-trained with the help of his grandmother to set up the family restaurant business.
During the early 1990s, Raiola worked for the Sports Promotions, a company in Holland, and assisted with the transfers of several high-profile Dutch players, including Dennis Bergkamp, to Italian clubs.
Raiola studied the methods of his mentors and colleagues to learn how to conduct such transfers by himself, making extra photocopies of the vital documents, before branching out to negotiate the move of Czech star Pavel Nedved from Sparta Prague to Lazio in 1996.
Since then, Raiola has overseen numerous Ibrahimovic transfers around Europe, as well as Balotelli's move from Inter Milan to Man City in 2010 and his subsequent switch to AC Milan.
He made his first move in the world of football administration when, as a 25-year-old, his company Intermezzo helped facilitate Holland international Bryan Roy's transfer from Ajax to Foggia.
Raiola, who moved to Foggia to live with Roy for seven months, became close with Foggia manager Zdenek Zeman and soon began to build up contacts in Czech Republic.
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In 1996, with Raiola quickly becoming a rising star in the agent world in Italy, negotiated Pavel Nedved's move from Sparta Prague to Lazio, then managed by close friend Zeman.
Slowly but surely the Dutch-Italian agent became a key player and it was an encounter with Zlatan Ibrahimovic in 2001, then at Ajax, that had a lasting impact on both of them.
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They had dinner together in a Japanese restaurant in Amsterdam and Ibrahimovic quickly pushed for Raiola to become his agent.
Raiola's client base has sky-rocketed since then with household names such as Paul Pogba, Erling Haaland, Matthjis de Ligt and Henrikh Mkhitaryan among his stable.
In August 2016, it was Raiola who negotiated the £89million world record transfer of Pogba to Manchester United.
Raiola reportedly made £20m from the Pogba deal, allowing him to purchase the former Miami home of notorious American mob boss Al Capone.
In 2019, Raiola was victorious in Italy's Federal Court of Appeal after FIFA's Disciplinary Committee ratified a three-month ban from the Italian Football Federation due to 'undisclosed reasons'.
He famous fell out with Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson before Pogba joined Juventus in 2012 and the purchase of the Miami mansion of Al Capone may have labelled him "The Godfather of the football mafian game - the Transfermarket."
Ferguson was unhappy about the way he feels Raiola unduly influenced the Pogba family to force the 19-year-old player from Old Trafford in 2012.
'I distrusted him from the moment I met him,' said the United manager. 'There are one or two football agents I simply do not like — and Mino Raiola is one of them.
'We had Paul under a three-year contract and it had a one-year renewal option which we were eager to sign. But Raiola suddenly appeared on the scene and our first meeting was a fiasco.
'He and I were like oil and water. From (the first meeting) on, our goose was cooked because Raiola had been able to ingratiate himself with Paul and his family and the player signed with Juventus.'
Raiola is in a T-shirt and jogging pants, standing barefoot on the balcony of a towering new apartment block overlooking Chelsea Harbour. His teenage son is sharing the view.
We are discussing his busy summer as agent to some of the biggest names in football.
This is the man who brokered the world record £89million transfer of Paul Pogba to Manchester United and boasts a client list that includes Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Mario Balotelli, Romelu Lukaku and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. His players are wanted by the world's biggest clubs and he's got gut at the negotiating table.
'I worked hard, I cleaned dishes, waited on tables, I was a barman but I never baked a pizza in my life — despite what has been written.'
The Italian in him underpins his strong family values and the tight-knit bond with his players. Listed by Forbes magazine as one of the most influential agents in sport, today he is spending valuable time with his son, Mario.
'It's nice to see my son,' says Raiola. 'When he was little I can recall him looking up at Zlatan in awe.'
He mimics a small boy, mouth agape, slowly looking up at the sky to take in a figurative giant.
'Zlatan used to drive him around in his Ferrari. I see Mario more now than I used to, I barely saw him growing up, I'd be away.
'That's this life, you have to do the work to get here, do the miles. I like to go and talk to the clubs, meet everyone. We all have different methods.'
To illustrate his point, he tells a joke about a man with a stammer who sells more Bibles than his boss by simply threatening to read them to customers unless they buy.
'The boss says: 'What's your secret?' 'I r-ring the d-door bell and s-s-say: 'H-H-Hello, d-d-do you w-w-want t-t-to buy th-th-this B-B-Bible, or d-d-do you w-w-want m-me t-to READ it t-t-t-to you?'
His own sales pitch is not for all, but you must know how to Marshall out what your players got and how both their mental and physical prowesses can benefit a club. Players with so much reputation with the media Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Pogba and the bad boy Mario Balotelli, can deliver more than the pitch game.
It had been shaping up to be a busy summer for Raiola, with Pogba and Haaland among his clients expected to be on the move but his condition casts doubt over whether he will be able to broker these deals. Raiola, as I write, is fighting for his life in a Milan hospital. Say a prayer for him now!
