“I distrusted him from the moment I met him,” former United manager Alex Ferguson said of Raiola after he struck a deal to move Pogba to Juventus in 2012. “There are one or two football agents I simply do not like – and Mino Raiola is one of them.”
Raiola fired back: “I put Pogba’s interests first… Maybe Ferguson only likes those who obey him.”
Raiola’s Amsterdam-based firm Maguire took its name from “Jerry Maguire”, the 1996 film starring Tom Cruise as a sports agent who gets fired for suggesting his company has taken on too many athletes to properly serve their clients.
The Pogba deal is the third Raiola has struck with United under new manager Jose Mourinho, following the recent signing of striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic and midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan as the Portuguese coach seeks to revamp the underperforming squad.
The Italian media has dubbed Raiola “Mister 300 Million” as he has now negotiated deals worth more than 300 million euros – including Pogba’s record fee of £89 million.
According to the soccer news website goal.com, Raiola is taking a 20 percent commission for his services, double the usual agent’s fee. It said his large commission had held up the talks with United.
Manchester United had already paid out more than 10 million pounds in agent fees between October and February – the highest amount of all the Premier League clubs even though it did not sign any players during the January transfer window.
Born in Italy, Raiola grew up in the Netherlands, working in his family’s Italian restaurant in Haarlem, where the president of the local soccer team ate every week, giving him his first break by appointing the young man sporting director of the club.
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