"Like Raiola or hate him (as Sir Alex Ferguson does), he helps shape the transfer market. He is one of the major forces determining which players end up at which clubs. [..] Many of football’s leading executives had been appointed chiefly because they were clubbable ex-players. “Incest makes that world weak,” he says. “It’s dumb because they want to keep it dumb. It’s a closed world, with gigantic potential, and a huge turnover of money [..] 1996, Raiola sold Nedved to Zeman’s new club, Lazio in Rome. The two Czechs reinforced the lesson Raiola had learnt from his dad: “extremists” succeed. Raiola became one himself. For more than 20 years now, he has travelled around Europe with a small suitcase, working. [..] one of Raiola’s maxims: even the smallest transfer can change somebody’s life. [..] Raiola is a central character in I Am Zlatan, Ibrahimovic’s autobiography. No wonder, because perhaps the key influence on the modern footballer’s career is his agent. The relationship is often closer than the much-discussed but typically transient one between coach and player. This is especially true of Raiola, who keeps his stable of players small so as to offer each one a personal service. [..] Raiola believes that not wearing a suit is an advantage, as it leads people to underestimate him. [..] That’s Raiola: close to his players, hostile to clubs and authorities. [..] Raiola has turned the model of a family pizzeria serving a clientele of regulars into a football agency. [..] What were you then? “A home. You came to eat at our home.” His business model informs the layout of his Haarlem workspace: footballers tend to feel uncomfortable in offices, so the place is essentially structured as a kitchen, with a screen in the corner to show matches. [..] It’s commonly thought that clubs and coaches decide which players to sign. Often, though, the driving force is the agent. Raiola explains, “I always try to formulate a goal with a player: ‘That is what we want. We’re not going to sit and wait and see where the wind blows.’” [..] one of Raiola’s gifts: anticipating changes in the transfer market. [..] many footballers, possibly including Balotelli, don’t particularly want to reach the top. Why should they? They can make millions without knocking themselves out. “Well, that’s right,” replies Raiola. “That’s why in my recent conversations I have an important question for players: ‘Why do you play football? What is your drive?’” What do they answer? “Well, most haven’t thought about it yet. I send them home saying, ‘Go think about it.’” [..] Raiola says: “I knew Mourinho from Inter, and there we’d had a bad relationship. I’d said things in the newspaper. But I think Mourinho is intelligent enough to understand what I do. At clubs that understand me, I have three or four players. Now at United, and before at Juventus, Milan, Paris Saint-Germain.” In these cases, says Raiola, he becomes a club’s “in-house consultant”. [..] every era, and is busily planning ahead. “There are eight, nine players in the Brazilian [youth] team, each one better than the next. I have [Gianluigi] Donnarumma at AC Milan, who’s 17 and is already their goalkeeper. I have a top striker at Juventus, Moise Kean, 16 years old, who might make his debut this year.” Raiola doesn’t sound like a man planning to take up golf. Many footballers lose all their money after they retire. England’s Professional Footballers Association has estimated that 10 to 20 per cent of ex-players go bankrupt. This is something Raiola thinks about a lot."
