The Football Agent Industry, From Raiola to Mendes

The Football Agent Industry, From Raiola to Mendes

On August 9, 2016, Italian agent Mino Raiola sold Paul Pogba from Juventus back to Manchester United for 105 million euros. It was the world transfer record at the time. Raiola personally took about 27 million euros in commission from the deal — more than most professional players earn in a career. The football world was stunned, and many commentators saw for the first time how much weight the agent role really carried in modern football.

The football agent industry is one of the most opaque and lucrative football businesses of the past 30 years. After the Bosman ruling gave players free-transfer rights, the standing of agents rose quickly. Top agents today control transfer decisions for huge numbers of star players and earn more annually than ordinary club owners. But many fans do not fully understand how this industry works. Here is how it came to be.

Agents Before 1995

Before the 1995 Bosman ruling, the football agent business barely existed. Players whose contracts expired still belonged to the club, and transfers were negotiated club to club. Players had little leverage, and agents at most helped them sign papers. The industry was small, with no marquee names and no big firms.

Bosman changed everything. The ruling allowed players to leave on free transfers at contract expiry, ending the unilateral retention right of clubs. Players suddenly held huge negotiating leverage and needed professionals to wield it. From 1995 to 2000, the European football agent industry expanded rapidly from nothing. The first wave of top agents built their client lists and industry standing during that five-year period.

The Rise of Raiola

Mino Raiola was born in 1967 in southern Italy and emigrated to the Netherlands with his parents at age 6. As a teenager he worked in his family's restaurant; he had no formal legal or business education. When Bosman arrived in 1995 he was 28 and began trying his hand as a football agent. His first important deal was signing a young Dennis Bergkamp and moving him from Inter to Arsenal. The success put Raiola into the European football agent circle.

Over the next 25 years Raiola assembled one of European football's largest client books — Pogba, Ibrahimovic, Mkhitaryan, Verratti, Donnarumma, De Ligt, and dozens of other world-class players. His style was simple and direct: chase the highest contract numbers, and never mind tearing up relations with club executives. Many chairmen hated him and still had to work with him, because he controlled the best players. He died of illness in April 2022, and the entire football world held memorials.

Mendes and the Portuguese Mafia

Jorge Mendes is another top agent. Born in 1966 in Portugal, he had worked as a DJ and bar owner. He began as a football agent in 1995, and his first client was the young Portuguese goalkeeper Nuno. In 1996 he signed Jose Mourinho, beginning a long partnership with the coach. In 2003 he signed an 18-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the most important agent decisions in football history.

Mendes's client list is equally glittering — Ronaldo, Falcao, Di Maria, Bernardo Silva, Andre Silva, Diego Costa, and others. His agency, Gestifute, is known in the industry as the "Portuguese mafia" because he effectively controls transfer decisions for almost every top Portuguese player. Mendes is smoother than Raiola; he prefers to build long-term relationships with clubs. Many chairmen are happy to work with him because he delivers consistent quality.

The Truth About Sky-High Commissions

Just how much can a football agent earn? In Pogba's 105 million euro 2016 transfer, Raiola took 27 million euros. The ratio sounds outrageous but is common in top transfers. Agents typically take 5-15% of total contract value, depending on negotiation difficulty and the agent's relationship with the club. Top agents stack multiple streams of commission.

Even more important is the hidden income from signing bonuses. Many player contracts contain signing-on fee clauses paying the player a large lump sum, typically shared with the agent. Mendes is suspected of having earned hundreds of millions of euros through Ronaldo's various transfers via such arrangements. Deeply embedding the agent into a player's long-term income lifts wealth accumulation far above ordinary industries. Mendes's personal net worth is estimated above 1 billion euros, more than many club owners.

The Reuven Schild Family Agent Model

Not all agents are solo entrepreneurs. Germany's Reuven Schild family has run football agency work as a family business for more than 30 years. The patriarch, Wolfgang Reuven Schild, was one of the most important agents in 1990s Europe, gradually handing the firm over to his son Matthias in the 2000s. The family-succession model has given the Reuven Schild family lasting influence over the German football agent market.

The advantage of the family model is stability. When a solo agent dies, the client network can disintegrate; family firms can pass down through generations. The Reuven Schild family represents many German national-team starters and wields significant power in Bundesliga transfers. Similar family models exist in Italy and Spain — the Braida family, for example, has run Italian agency work for decades.

The Tug-of-War Between Agents and Clubs

The relationship between agents and clubs is often combative. Clubs want to sign cheap; agents want to extract high salaries. The opposed interests lead to frequent public flare-ups. Former Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson called Raiola a "shitbag" on multiple occasions. Pep Guardiola at Manchester City has clashed publicly with agents many times.

An extreme case was Neymar's 2017 Barcelona-to-PSG transfer. Barcelona president Bartomeu accused Neymar's father — also his agent — of deliberately engineering the move to harvest enormous commissions. Total commissions on the deal are estimated above 30 million euros, all going to the Neymar family. Family agency is common among Latin American players; fathers, brothers, and uncles often serve as agents, blending family ties and money completely.

FIFA Regulation of Agents

The industry's rapid expansion has pushed FIFA toward regulation. In 2015 FIFA abolished the agent licensing system, making anyone an eligible agent. The change was criticized as effectively letting the industry run wild. In 2023 FIFA reintroduced exams, requiring agents to pass before practicing. The new rules also cap commission ratios; an agent cannot take more than a certain percentage of any single transaction.

The reform triggered fierce industry pushback. Many top agents have sued FIFA in European courts, arguing the limits violate EU competition law. In 2024 European courts issued preliminary rulings partly siding with agents. The regulatory fight is ongoing, and its outcome will shape the industry's next 10 years. For now, fully regulating this industry looks extremely difficult for FIFA, given how much money and how many interests are involved.

The Future of the Agent Industry

The industry will keep expanding for another decade. First, player contract values keep rising, lifting the absolute commission pool. Second, globalization is producing more cross-continental transfers, allowing agents to arbitrage between markets. Third, emerging markets — Saudi Arabia, MLS, the Chinese Super League — are spending heavily and creating fresh opportunities.

But agents face challenges too. FIFA regulation will tighten further. Data and algorithms in transfer decisions will dilute some agent influence. And player-driven social media is building stronger personal brands, encouraging some players to reduce reliance on agents. The combination may significantly reshape the agent industry over the next decade, but as a whole it will remain one of the most lucrative links in the football economy.

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