Just over six months after facilitating Zlatan Ibrahimovic's switch to PSG, the 45-year-old Italian was back in the news for masterminding yet another massive transfer

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kwan

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RAIOLA'S WHEELING & DEALING

ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC

The Swede has made five permanent moves since hooking up with Raiola in 2004 for an estimated cumulative total of €165 million. MARIO BALOTELLI

Raiola engineered the €30m switch from Inter to Manchester City in 2010 and has now brought him back to Milan, to the Rossoneri , for €22m. ROBINHO

The Brazilian wanted to swap City for Barcelona in 2010 but Raiola , who wasn't even Robinho's agent, intervened and sent him to Milan. PAVEL NEDVED

Again, Raiola wasn't technically representing Nedved when he left Lazio for Juventus in 2001, but the agent brokered the €41m transfer. MAXWELL

The defender officially came under Raiola 's wing in 2009 and has since made two lucrative moves, to Barcelona and then PSG.

Raiola

“The president of Haarlem came to eat with us every Friday,” he explained in an interview with

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Raiola , having honed his skills as a mediator while working as a broker for Dutch businessmen with commercial interests in Italy, negotiated a deal with the player’s union in Netherlands that enabled him to represent all of the country’s footballers.

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Ferlaino

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Moggi : "You and Ibra continue to make trouble. Don't send him to training ..."

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Raiola insists otherwise, though, claiming that he only ever does right by his clients, arguing that he does not engineer transfers, but merely facilitates them.

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"I think that when a player decides to leave a team, he should leave ... The old agents worked in the interests of the club. For me, the player comes first "

- Mino Raiola

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By Mark Doyleaccountancy firm is calledTax & Legal, its name inspired by an Oscar-winning movie starring Tom Cruise.president Aurelio Dewould no doubt be offended by the insinuation thatis in any way similar to Jerry, the fictional sports agent who comes to champion love (or “”) over greed, but many of his clients would argue that the comparison is just.Welcome to the divisive - yet lucrative - world of, super agent.The 45-year-old was born in, Italy, but his parents emigrated to Netherlands when he was still an infant, settling in. It was in this Dutch municipality thatwas raised before taking the first steps to becoming one of the most influential agents in football.Although it might not look it now,was a moderately talented player in his youth and he played for his local club before quitting the game at just 18. However, while he started studying law, he had not lost his passion for football, electing to take charge of theyouth team.Even at such a tender age,was a straight-talker with a distinct lack of respect for any figure of authority other than his restaurateur father.IlXIX two years ago. “I was always telling him that he knew nothing about football. One day he takes me aside and says: ‘Listen, you try it.’ He appointed me sporting director.”, though, became frustrated by his inability to make what he reckoned were the requisite changes due to a lack of funds. However, with Dutch players very much in vogue in the mid-1980s, he saw that there was money to be made in selling his adopted nation’s top footballing talent to Italy, which was then the centre of the footballing universe.His goal at this point was to establish a special working relationship with, “the club of my heart”. However, the deal collapsed. "I called [thenpresident. We started the collaboration. I offered him [Dennis]for 700 million lire [€362,000]. He hesitated. Two years later [1993], he offered €14 million, but I gave the player to Inter."With thedeal, which also sawjoin thefrom Ajax,had established himself as a major player inA, coming as it did a year after Bryan Roy's successful switch from Amsterdam toWhat was clear at this juncture was thatwas adept at making his clients happy. However, clubs were becoming increasingly concerned by his methods.Indeed, Ajax, who had profited substantially from-arranged deals during the early '90s, were less enamoured with the way in which star forwardleft forin 2004. Their ill-feeling only intensified two years later when the fallout fromled to the release of the following recorded telephone exchanges between thenmanaging director LucianoandRaiola: "Tomorrow, I'll keep the player at home all day; he won't show up for training. I then have an appointment with the directors of Ajax at noon, but I'll come at two ..."'s influence on players was also queried by Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson during his club’s ultimately futile attempts to persuade former midfielder Paulto remain at Oldlast year. “He [] has got an agent who’s obviously become a bit difficult ...”Meanwhile, the aforementioned Dewas, unsurprisingly, far more blunt when it came to addressingand the agent's all-too-public protestations that, who is not even officially a client, should leave the San Paolo in order to better himself as a player. "," Demused. "He's a pain in the backside, who, for years, has been trying to takeaway.""I think that when a player decides to leave a team he should leave," he reasons. "I have never made compromises; I work exclusively in the interest of my client. The players are my fortune and I have a great responsibility towards them. However, I have never carried out improper activity or activity that I, personally, do not think proper. The old agents favoured the interests of the club. For me, the player comes first.”Whatever the truth, this is a man with an undeniable way with words who knows how to sell himself, and his players. He has memorably comparedwith a Salvador Dali painting and claimed thatmove to Paris Saint-Germain has provided visitors to the French capital with something to see other than the Mona Lisa. However, while he speaks eight languages (Italian, Dutch, French, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese and "of course Neapolitan"), he rather humbly puts his impressive linguistic capabilities down to "preparation, not intelligence".Whatever it is, he is incredibly canny. He has cultivated a mutually beneficial relationship with Milan, as further evidenced by his masterminding of Mario's recent switch to San, and he has also proven himself wonderfully adept at massaging the ego of his players. He told a teenagethat he would make him a three-timed’Or winner, yet says the same award will be rendered meaningless if it is never given toSuch contradictions lie at the very heart of the role of agents in the modern game. Yes, the world of football would be a beautiful place if there were no agents, but it is a pipe dream, as football is no longer a sport, but big business. "We live in a cynical world," as Dicky Fox says in 'Jerry Maguire'. "A cynical world. And we work in a business of tough competitors."Consequently, there will always be a need for people like. Love him or loathe him, one cannot deny that he is very good at what he does. The man himself says he resolves problems. His detractors say that he creates them. Perhaps the truth is somewhere in between - and perhaps utterly irrelevant because the bottom line is thatmakes money. Both for his clients - and himself.