Agent Mino Raiola has justified his firm stance regarding renewals for his clients, and also passed comment on Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Raiola looks after the interests of a number of Milan players, namely Ibrahimovic, Alessio Romagnoli and Gianluigi Donnarumma, and has come under fire from fans because of the way he tries to extort as much money as possible from contract talks.
The latest regarding Donnarumma suggests that things are not exactly a walk in the park, though. La Gazzetta dello Sport reported this morning that Mino Raiola, his agent, wants €10m net per year to renew because he believes that Gigio deserves to be one of the highest paid goalkeepers in the world.
Milan have instead offered a contract until 2026 worth €7.5m net per season and at the moment this figure does not satisfy Raiola, who aims to get a better offer. Not only that, but the paper adds that there is no agreement on the duration of the contract as Raiola wants a one or two-year extension so that there can be further negotiations down the line.
Raiola was interviewed by the BBC, and responded to the accusation of greed – often stressed by many fans – regarding the way he chooses to go about negotiations regarding his clients.
“It’s not nice to always hear the usual prejudices. The audience might also ask: ‘If this man is so greedy, why are all his players happy and they stay with him?’ I would be lying if I said that this does not bother me,” he said (via MilanNews).
“How can you judge if I have been a good agent for Ibrahimovic? The only one who can judge is Ibra himself. I have no power and influence, my role is getting the best deal for my player. No more than that. Doing this means giving him a range of services that people don’t know about. My players don’t call me a parasite and they know how I work. I only care what my players call me.”
“If this man is so greedy, why are all his players happy and they stay with him?”
What a joke. They are happy exactly because of his greed, which brings them many Dollarumma’$.