Football agent Mino Raiola has undergone emergency surgery after being hospitalised in Italy, according to reports.
The 54-year-old went under the knife in Milan and is currently under doctors’ observation.
Italian outlets Ansa and Gazzetta dello Sport say that Raiola was hospitalised at San Raffaele and underwent a ‘very delicate’ surgery this morning.
The nature of his illness or reason for the surgery is not yet known but he is anticipated to remain in hospital.
The representative, born in Italy and raised in the Netherlands, will have to halt his January transfer window work, a busy time in his industry.
Among his star-studded list of clients are Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba and Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland.
Raiola is a one of football’s most well-known agents but also a controversial figure in the game.
He is renowned for getting the best deal for himself and his client, prompting some of the world’s biggest clubs into bidding wars for players such as Pogba and Haaland, picking up huge commission fees along the way.
In 2020, Forbes claimed that Raiola was worth $84.7million (£61.96m) and the recent FIFA report into transfer fees urged a clampdown on commissions earned by him and his colleagues.
The changes proposed by FIFA – which have been met with fierce opposition from agents – will involve capping any representative fees at 10 per cent of any transfer fee (paid by the selling club) and three per cent of a player’s wages, for contract negotiations.
Asked about the matter, Raiola said on Studio Voetbal, as per NOS Football : “I don’t take it. An agent must earn as much as possible for the player.
“What will be higher with this plan? The transfer fee or the salary?
“In fact, FIFA is saying that they do not go against the transfer fees, but against the salaries. The negotiating position of the players is thus compromised.”
Raiola then proposed a radical change to transfer business by saying: “Abolish the transfer fee. Then we will only talk about salaries.
(Image: Peter Powell/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
“The whole system is wrong. It was invented by people who have no knowledge of the profession.”
One of the biggest transfers the Italian has been involved with in recent years was Pogba’s £89m deal to re-join United from Juventus in 2016.
The total agent’s fee for the mega-money transfer was reportedly £41.89m, but under the proposed rules, the maximum Raiola could have received for that deal was £8.9m.
FIFA intends to publish its new regulations in the coming months, despite the threat of legal action from some of football’s biggest agents.
Mino Raiola ‘undergoes emergency surgery’ as super agent hospitalised
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