April 28, (THEWILL) – On Thursday, football super-agent Mino Raiola was compelled to reject reports that he had died, putting out an angry tweet to counter the falsehood making the rounds.
The Italian, who manages some of the biggest names in football like Paul Pogba of Manchester United, Erling Haaland of Borussia Dortmund, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, posted a tweet that he was not dead.
For a while, it was known to his close friends and acquaintances that Raiola has been suffering from a lung disease. But, on Thursday, several stories in Italy said Raiola had died before friends and relatives outrightly rejected the fake news.
Jose Fortes Rodriguez, a close friend of Raiola’s rubbished the claims of the super agent’s death insisting that “Mino isn’t dead. Those reports are nonsense.”
They believed he is still alive, even if going through some medications to deal with a decline in his health. Despite this, social media users, who had seen the stories of his demise, shared tributes in honour to the football agent.
Even Spanish giants Real Madrid expressed their “deep regret” over Raiola’s death and offered their “condolences to his family and friends” through the club’s official Twitter account.
Fans from all across the world paid tribute to him after his alleged unexpected passing. One person stated: “We are saddened to hear about the death of football agent Mino Raiola. May he rest in peace.”
Another person added: “What sad news about Mino. He was good friends with all his players.”
The 54-year-old was reportedly sent to San Raffaele hospital in Milan for surgery, according to Italian publication Gazzetta dello Sport and he has now issued a statement denying allegations of his death.
The statement read: “Current health status for the ones wondering: pissed off second time in 4 months they kill me. Seems also able to resuscitate (sic).”
THEWILL recalls that Raiola was forced to deny having had emergency surgery in January after undergoing medical exams that required anaesthesia, at the time. Raiola was alluding to this when he said this was the second time in four months reports of his bad health will make the news.
Dr Alberto Zangrillo from San Raffaele Hospital also reacted to the news saying: “I’m outraged by the phone calls from pseudo-journalists speculating on the life of a man who is fighting to survive”.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
