“‘A BUNCH OF LOWLIFES’ TRIED TO STEAL HAALAND, POGBA, OTHERS FROM MINO RIOLA ON THE DAY HE PASSED” – BRAZILIAN LAWYER
Rival agents attempted to steal former football agent, Mino Raiola’s players on the day he died, Brazilian lawyer Rafaela Pimenta has claimed.
The highly rated agent died in April following an illness and Pimenta, who now runs his player agency which looks after stars like Erling Haaland and Paul Pogba, has detailed how rivals saw his death as an opportunity to take some of his big-name clients.
While saying that she had received lots of support from figures such as Jonathan Barnett, Gareth Bale’s agent, she added that ‘lowlifes’ tried to capitalise on his sudden death.
‘One called (Walter) Benítez the day that Mino died. And Wanda, his wife, picked up and she gave him such a tongue-lashing and said, “You should be ashamed of yourself.”
‘Before Mino died they called Alphonse (Areola). Thousands of people called Xavi (Simons), thousands of people called Erling (Haaland), thousands of people called Paul (Pogba).
‘They called me also and said: “If you need help I can run the business for you.”‘
Players were totally rocked by news of Raiola’s death.
Haaland branded his former agent ‘the best’, while Juventus president Andrea Agnelli wrote his own unique tribute, telling Raiola to not ‘take the p*** in paradise’.
But there was never any chance Pimenta was going to allow their stable of stars to be raided in a time of grieving.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ryan Gravenberch, Matthijs de Ligt, Mario Balotelli, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Marco Verratti and Gianluigi Donnarumma are other high-profile names in the Raiola stable.
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