Mino Raiola not dead, ‘very, very ill’ – says source close to agent

A previous version of this story stated that Mino Raiola had passed away aged 54. It has since been updated after sources close to the football agent denied these reports, stating he is very ill, but has not passed.

Mino Raiola is 'very, very ill', but has not died, contrary to earlier reports, as stated by a source close to the football agent. https://twitter.com/tariqpanja/status/1519654072034463744 The Italian agent's business partner José Fortes Rodriguez also spoke to Dutch news agency NOS, where he confirmed that while very sick, Raiola is not dead. This was corroborated by a tweet from Raiola's own personal Twitter account, published this afternoon. https://twitter.com/MinoRaiola/status/1519657935193923584?s=20&t=Ssm6FpwdIwTjSXBlEpP0Og The super-agent is suffering from serious illness, and was hospitalised in Milan, Italy back in January where he underwent surgery. In a post from January on his Twitter account, Raiola provided an update on the surgery which translated to say: "Mino Raiola was subjected to ordinary medical checks which required anaesthesia. These are scheduled checks, there has been no emergency intervention." Raiola has worked his way up to become one of the most well-known faces in the football world and has been involved in some of the most high-profile deals featuring some of the sports biggest stars. Among his portfolio of talent included the likes of Mario Balotelli, Paul Pogba, Erling Haaland, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Romelu Lukaku and more. The 54-year-old was born in Nocera Inferiore, Italy in 1967 before moving to Haarlem in the Netherlands with his family just a year later. At the age of 20, Raiola became the head of HFC Haarlem's youth team at the age of 20 before then pursuing his career as a football agent. Having initially worked for a company called Sports Promotions, Raiola was responsible for brokering deals which involved players switching Dutch sides for Italian clubs. He played a role in helping the likes of Dennis Bergkamp, Michel Kreek and Brian Roy to secure moves to Serie A and worked as a football super-agent for the best part of 30 years. As recently as last year, Raiola's net worth was believed to be around £62m, according to Forbes, and had over 20 footballing superstars as part of his clientele.