Star consultant Mino Raiola died

Mino Raiola is dead. Football loses one of its most influential player advisors - and an extremely controversial character.

Mino Raiola was feared and more than just insulted by annoyed football managers. The argument and confrontation were two main motifs of a short life - and yet the career of the notorious consultant from BVB striker Erling, among others, also offers Haaland an almost romantic train: Carmine Raiola literally made it to the millionaire. On Saturday he died after a long illness at the age of 54. International football loses one of its great string pullers.

"In endless grief, we say goodbye to the most amazing football agent that ever existed," said his family's statement, which was published on Raiola's verified Twitter account: "Mino fought with the same strength with which he was with the end Our players defended at the negotiating table. "

Already last Thursday, false reports about the death of the Italian caused a lot of excitement, at that time Raiola still fought for his life in the Milan Hospital of San Raffaele.

In Italy, Spain, Germany, England, in Scandinavia and other parts of the world, the excitement was great, it was not about any player broker. Raiola was probably the most controversial, but almost certainly the most successful in his guild.

Mino Raiola: It all started in a pizzeria

It all started in a pizzeria at the gates of Amsterdam. The parents emigrated to the Netherlands from southern Italy in 1968 when Raiola was just one year old. In Haarlem they did a restaurant and the son helped, he cleaned, washed plates, brought the food.

Much later, Raiola, the player advisor, was also called "Il Pizzaiolo", the pizza maker. According to his own statement, he never stood on the oven.

Instead, as a young adult, he already had an eye on the finance of the business, also studied a law for a few semesters and learned numerous foreign languages - Raiola prepared his promotion and the pizzeria became a starting ramp.

Because she was also popular with prominent representatives from football. And so Raiola made the first contacts into the business early on, in which he was later to earn millions.

Little HFC Haarlem appointed him sports director in the early 1990s, as an agent he was involved in his first transfer a little later: the Dutch international Bryan Roy moved from Ajax Amsterdam to Foggia. It was a comparatively tranquil start.

In the following decades, exceptional players such as Haaland, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Paul Pogba and Gianluigi Donnarumma put their millions in Raiola's hands.

The players admired his business tactics, the clubs feared them. Sir Alex Ferguson, legendary boss of Manchester United, once described Raiola as a "Schißkerl" - because he had convinced Pogba for a transfer -free move to Juventus Turin.

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Raiola also caught in Dortmund when it came to the Haaland transfer. BVB sports director Michael Zorc must have "really hated" in the end, Raiola once at Sport1, and that is a reason: "I am ready to go to war for my players. I am ready to do everything for you. Just like for my sons. "