Mino Raiola: From pizza chef to football's most powerful agent via Alex Ferguson row

Mino Raiola lived quite the life.

The super-agent, who passed away on Saturday aged 54, was undoubtedly one of the best-known figures in football, despite never playing the sport professionally himself. As the agent of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Mario Balotelli, Paul Pogba, Erling Haaland and many others, he was constantly under the spotlight.

He was outspoken, hard-working, controversial and unavoidable in football. Having spent 28 years in the game, Raiola has been absolutely instrumental in shaping the football world we know today, for better or worse.

Raiola reached the very top of his profession as a football agent, but he was by no means destined for greatness. His back-story, of which he was very proud, is remarkable and formed the backbone of his work ethic and moral code.

Born in Italy, Raiola and his extended family moved from Salerno, in the south of the country, to Haarlem in the Netherlands in 1968. They may have moved across Europe, but the Raiolas maintained their links with the home country by opening a pizzeria called, appropriately enough, Napoli, in Haarlem’s big market square. It was there that the young Mino learned a lot about life.

Raiola worked odd jobs in the family restaurant, waiting tables and washing up, while he watched his father pour his heart and soul into the business. “My dad worked 18, sometimes 20 hours a day here,” Raiola told The Financial Times in 2016. “At work he is extreme. When I was 11 or 12, I went to work with my dad to get to know him. He was in the kitchen, so what could I do? I could wash up.”

His youth helped Raiola learn Dutch faster than the rest of his family. That proved a valuable asset. Still in his teens, he was already showing an eye for business: he would use