The man who has negotiated all the moves for Zlatan and Mario looks to be on the brink of going for the biggest gig of the lot in world football.
According to an interview in the Dutch press, a very interesting new candidate may be about to take on Blatter, David Ginola and whoever else makes it into the race for the FIFA presidency.
Voetbal International have a report from an interview that Mina Raiola gave to Dutch paper Volksrant this week. In it, the man best known as the agent of Mario Balotelli, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and a host of other big name players, throws his hat into the ring in quite a big way.
Raiola promises to be a ‘bull in a china shop’ if he gets the gig and that he is ‘sick’ at the thought of Blatter getting re-elected. Transparency in all FIFA’s dealings is the main plank of his campaign, from the bidding process for World Cups to commercial deals.
And, unlike Ginola, he appears to have made some progress in the requirement to get five of FIFA’s member associations to back him.
The report says he has met with the head of Holland’s association, the KNVB, and Raiola also claims to have already conducted a tour of other European associations, as well as making visits to two from outside Europe. Plus, after all the big money moves he has engineered over the years, we reckon he has the cash too.
The closing date for entries is January 29, so Railoa has very little time to get himself organised but if you have read Zlatan’s book you will know that the agent is not a man that takes no for an answer so this race for the FIFA gig could be about to get very interesting indeed.
