Football super agent Mino Raiola, who represented the likes of Paul Pogba, Erling Haaland and Matthijs de Ligt has passed away according to reports in Italy.
Outlet Tg La 7 reported the news on Thursday afternoon, months after the Italian born agent had been in hospital for emergency surgery.
Raiola was rushed to hospital in Milan back in January, although his nature of his illness was never confirmed, with the 54-year-old undergoing surgery.
After being born in Italy, he moved with his family to the Dutch city of Haarlem the following year and he grew up in the Netherlands.
After a brief career in football as a player and head of HFC Haarlem’s youth team, he moved into becoming an agent with Sports Promotions.
He made his name moving players from Netherlands to Italy, thanks to his links to both countries and became one of the biggest names in football.
Whilst football fans might not have always loved him, for his often controversial tactics to move players between clubs, those he represented were big fans of him.
He had a reputation for doing the very best for them, which is why he’d often ruffle the feathers of fans who supported the club he was trying to move them from, and was clearly an excellent and shrewd businessman.
Raiola was known to cause controversy.