Gianluigi Donnarumma | Official: Contract extended to 2021

[Brwned]

You can do all that by achieving more money. Whatever might be everyone's opinion on agent, he does what he is told by his player. His clients Zlatan, Pogba, Lukaku all had good careers or good path for great careers.

Lukaku's career has taken him to a place where he's been openly unhappy for a long time, playing at a level below his capabilities, and struggling to establish himself in the national team. Pogba was kicked out of his first club, supposedly a club he loves, because he was seen to have misplaced priorities. Ibrahimovic - absolutely. Ibrahimovic is single-minded enough to not be negatively influenced by Raiola while being able to use his undoubted qualities.

He gets his players to love him, there's no doubt about that. He often does that by influencing them from a very young age and helping them set misplaced priorities. Money, money, moneeeeeey, money. I find it abhorrent how many people think that having that focus, at 18 years old, is a remotely healthy mindset. It's not necesarrily Gigi's fault - he's a kid and he's easily influenced, it would seem. To think people are condoning it though...wow.

 

[roonster09]

Lukaku's career has taken him to a place where he's been openly unhappy for a long time, playing at a level below his capabilities, and struggling to establish himself in the national team. Pogba was kicked out of his first club, supposedly a club he loves, because he was seen to have misplaced priorities. Ibrahimovic - absolutely. Ibrahimovic is single-minded enough to not be negatively influenced by Raiola while being able to use his undoubted qualities.

He gets his players to love him, there's no doubt about that. He often does that by influencing them from a very young age and helping them set misplaced priorities. Money, money, moneeeeeey, money. I find it abhorrent how many people think that having that focus, at 18 years old, is a remotely healthy mindset. It's not necesarrily Gigi's fault - he's a kid and he's easily influenced, it would seem. To think people are condoning it though...wow.

Lukaku's career was going nowhere, now he is wanted by 2 of the biggest clubs in England to lead the line. So yes his career is on nice track.

Zlatan at 35 was still in complete support of his agent. Players are not fools. His agent is getting big money for his clients as well as big clubs.

 

[Brwned]

Lukaku's career was going nowhere, now he is wanted by 2 of the biggest clubs in England to lead the line. So yes his career is on nice track.

Zlatan at 35 was still in complete support of his agent. Players are not fools. His agent is getting big money for his clients as well as big clubs.

He was signed by that same club years ago for being an exceptionally talented young player. To give credit to Raiola for him moving back to the same club, as with Pogba, is very strange to me. What he's done is helped them get a lot more money along the way and very little else. If you think that's something to laud then fair enough. I think it's detestable.

Players are fools. Most people are fools. We're tricked by our surrounding environment to do things that damage us individually, the society we live in and the planet we live on. Surrounding yourself with people like Raiola and having money and material goods as a central pillar of your life has demonstrably negative effects on your mental and physical health. Why we choose to ignore that and instead celebrate Donarumma's and Raiola's behaviour is utterly bemusing to me.

 

[prtk0811]

He is one of mino riola's client.

 

[Varun]

He was signed by that same club years ago for being an exceptionally talented young player. To give credit to Raiola for him moving back to the same club, as with Pogba, is very strange to me. What he's done is helped them get a lot more money along the way and very little else. If you think that's something to laud then fair enough. I think it's detestable.

Players are fools. Most people are fools. We're tricked by our surrounding environment to do things that damage us individually, the society we live in and the planet we live on. Surrounding yourself with people like Raiola and having money and material goods as a central pillar of your life has demonstrably negative effects on your mental and physical health. Why we choose to ignore that and instead celebrate Donarumma's and Raiola's behaviour is utterly bemusing to me.

In Pogba's case, what you're saying holds true only if you believe his development was going to be the same if he stayed here which is a huge stretch given the strides he made after moving to Juve. It wasn't even about the money as we offered the same deal. The same goes for Lukaku, left a top club to move down a tier, got regular game time and is now among the most wanted players in the league with the same club that sold him back then, willing to cough up multiple times the fee to secure his services. It isn't just about the money at all. He's also had clients like Nedved(unless I'm mistaken and he didn't represent him) who stayed at the same club.

Basically, as I see it, they are very important to these players who aren't smart enough to deal with the suits at the clubs. Hell, I remember reading a piece that said agents take care of literally every aspect of their lives for them. If these players didn't have agents, clubs would be screwing them on deals. It's a business and no one's a saint looking out for everybody in the puzzle.

I dont see how having Raiola at their side = making money central to the existence either. It's not as if he's shipping clients to China to make big bucks or his clients are giving up on the footballing side to earn more money.

 

[Brwned]

In Pogba's case, what you're saying holds true only if you believe his development was going to be the same if he stayed here which is a huge stretch given the strides he made after moving to Juve. It wasn't even about the money as we offered the same deal. The same goes for Lukaku, left a top club to move down a tier, got regular game time and is now among the most wanted players in the league with the same club that sold him back then, willing to cough up multiple times the fee to secure his services. It isn't just about the money at all. He's also had clients like Nedved(unless I'm mistaken and he didn't represent him) who stayed at the same club.

Basically, as I see it, they are very important to these players who aren't smart enough to deal with the suits at the clubs. Hell, I remember reading a piece that said agents take care of literally every aspect of their lives for them. If these players didn't have agents, clubs would be screwing them on deals. It's a business and no one's a saint looking out for everybody in the puzzle.

I dont see how having Raiola at their side = making money central to the existence either. It's not as if he's shipping clients to China to make big bucks or his clients are giving up on the footballing side to earn more money.

Re: Nedved, this is what Raiola had to say about him.

“He seemed very reserved. Diffident. When we were with Nehoda (he also represented Nedvěd) negotiating a contract with Lazio he really surprised me. He made it very clear that football means a lot more to him than money. Other clubs offered him a lot more money and I wanted him to have a big contract, but coach Zeman was against him having a huge contract in the beggining. I eventually had a fight with Zeman and we went nearly 6 months without speaking to each other. Nedvěd was always telling me calmly: ‘Mino, let it go, don’t get angry…'”

He knew exactly what Nedved wanted but decided he cared more about money and would fight for it. The worst example of that is when he mislead him into thinking Lazio no longer wanted him, just so he'd move to Juve for the money and the fame that is so desperately important to Raiola.

“Madonna mia…You could write a book about it. I was always against Moggi. I used to tell myself that the day comes when Juventus will want one of my players and then he will pay for it all. When we (Mino and Nehoda) were telling Pavel that he has to go somewhere else it didn’t matter where to. Real, Barcelona… ‘It’s over in Lazio, do you understand?’ I told him. However, he wanted to stay in Rome because of his family. Calcio is important to Pavel. Very important, but family means more to him. They liked it there. Nehoda and his wife played a big part in his transfer to Juventus. We insisted with Nehoda that it is a necessary step he has to take in his career. Nehoda’s wife patiently explained it to Pavel’s wife, she told her that it is the right step in his career. She made her calm and gave her the courage needed for the change.”

We went to see president Cragnotti and gave him a little warning. ‘If you want to sell Pavel, you have to tell him in the eyes.’ However, Cragnotti was deeply in love with Nedvěd, he was his precious player. He told Pavel he couldn’t give him the salary we agreed on even though he’d deserved it. He told him: ‘If you accept lower salary I will make it up to you when the club is in a better situation.’ Pavel agreed with that and was happy. I wasn’t because I knew it wasn’t the right decision for his career.

He's very open about his motivations in life. He's evidently a bit of a dick. There's a reason why Sir Alex and Guardiola didn't like him at all.

 

[Varun]

Re: Nedved, this is what Raiola had to say about him.

He knew exactly what Nedved wanted but decided he cared more about money and would fight for it. The worst example of that is when he mislead him into thinking Lazio no longer wanted him, just so he'd move to Juve for the money and the fame that is so desperately important to Raiola.

He's very open about his motivations in life. He's evidently a bit of a dick. There's a reason why Sir Alex and Guardiola didn't like him at all.

In the first bit, the line about footballing meaning more than money catching him by surprise is odd, agreed but overall, the goal seems to be for lazio to give him money to match what he'd been offered elsewhere which I don't see as wrong at all. If my current organisation started underpaying me, I'd ask them to may up or switch, why should it be different for a footballer?

The 2nd bit is cnutish, agreed.

I dont put much weight in Sir Alex hating him tbh. I believe it's down to the Pogba saga as SAF desperately wanted to keep Pogba but he ended up moving. Sir Alex talks glowingly about Mendes btw and you have a lot of people who'd call him a cnut so it's just down to how the personal experience has been.

 

[Brwned]

In the first bit, the line about footballing meaning more than money catching him by surprise is odd, agreed but overall, the goal seems to be for lazio to give him money to match what he'd been offered elsewhere which I don't see as wrong at all. If my current organisation started underpaying me, I'd ask them to may up or switch, why should it be different for a footballer?

The 2nd bit is cnutish, agreed.

I dont put much weight in Sir Alex hating him tbh. I believe it's down to the Pogba saga as SAF desperately wanted to keep Pogba but he ended up moving. Sir Alex talks glowingly about Mendes btw and you have a lot of people who'd call him a cnut so it's just down to how the personal experience has been.

I just feel like we're dancing around the edges here. Raiola cares about money and fame. He makes his players care about money and fame, if they're young and easily influenced like Donnarumma or Pogba, or he undermines them by going behind his back to convince other influential stakeholders (dedicated agents, wives, club owners) to force him to do something he doesn't want to do, as was the case with Nedved. Some of his clients may already only care about money and fame and can manage Raiola.

If you think that money and fame are really important then you'll celebrate it, I guess. I'm just surprised that so many people in here seem to feel that way. If my organisatio underpays me but offers me lots of other more important things - self-development, novelty, support, flexibility etc. - then I'll be ok with that, because money's really not that important. Not when you're earning enough to live comfortably.

 

[Varun]

I just feel like we're dancing around the edges here. Raiola cares about money and fame. He makes his players care about money and fame, if they're young and easily influenced like Donnarumma or Pogba, or he undermines them by going behind his back to convince other influential stakeholders (dedicated agents, wives, club owners) to force him to do something he doesn't want to do, as was the case with Nedved. Some of his clients may already only care about money and fame and can manage Raiola.

If you think that money and fame are really important then you'll celebrate it, I guess. I'm just surprised that so many people in here seem to feel that way.

I can't really comment on the fame bit as I can't relate to it but money is absolutely important and its naive to think otherwise. It's how the world works and I don't see why footballers are any different.

Basically, I'll only criticise an agent when they make their clients chase money at the expense of football which seems to be the case from what you've written about Nedved and isn't the case at all when it comes to Donnarumma, Pogba or Lukaku. I don't put much stock into individual opinions either because they're so influenced by personal experience even when it comes from someone like Sir Alex.

As an aside, I don't like the tendency to put all blame on agents while absolving the players of any blame as people tend to do when it suits an argument. Sure, young players are more prone to being misled but past a certain age, there's no excuse.

 

[Damien]