He was unique but he had a totally different approach to the way he worked for his players.
The big contracts and bigger transfer fees he negotiated meant that while he might not have been liked much by soccer fans around the world, you’d have to look long and hard to find players that were not satisfied with the way he worked with them.
The first time Raiola met the star striker, who became the player that was probably closest one to him, he completely changed Ibrahimovic’s life.
Raiola came with some stats on a piece of paper with the numbers of strikers like Christian Vieri, Andriy Shevchenko, Pippo Inzaghi and others, and said, “They score a lot of goals.
“With the numbers of those strikers even my mom can sell me, that’s why I need you.” Raiola laughed, and that day began one of the most incredible relationships in the history of soccer between an agents player.
He worked mainly as an intermediary between the Netherlands and Italy in the 1990’s and took advantage of his language skills to strike some notable deals including Dennis Bergkamp’s move to Inter Milan from Ajax.
He would be a defender of his players in public, a man who would happily put himself up for abuse by fans as a public figure, but that was him doing the job he was asked to do by his players.
Through the years he also fought to change FIFA regulations and had aggressive ideas about what the future of soccer should look like.
Raiola was one of the most incredible and uncommon figures in the soccer world and sadly he won’t get to see some of his players moving this summer, including Haaland who is expected to be one of the most awaited transfers of the recent history.