Soccer “super agent” Mino Riola on Thursday hit back at widespread media claims that he had died at the age of 54, saying on Twitter that he was outraged by the reports.
Reports of the death of Raiola, whose clients include Paul Pogba and one of world football’s current most popular assets, Erling Braut Haaland, spread quickly from Italy.
This was the second time this year that Raiola or his crew denied speculation about his health.
“Current health status for those wondering: Angry they killed me for the second time in 4 months. (sic) seems able to revive too,” said Raiola’s official Twitter account.
Raiola’s agency had earlier told AFP that reports of his death were “fake news”, as Italian media widely claimed he had passed away.
Gazzetta dello Sport, Italy’s most prestigious sports daily, also published an obituary for Raiola, who was born in southern Italy but raised in the Netherlands.
Asked by AFP whether the reports were true, Raiola’s agency said: “Mino is not dead, the stories are fake news”.
The agency would not disclose Raiola’s whereabouts nor whether he was ill.
Italian news agency ANSA quoted Alberto Zangrillo, head of the intensive care unit at San Raffaele Hospital just outside Milan, as saying Raiola was fighting for his life.
“I am outraged by phone calls from pseudo-journalists who are speculating on the life of a man who is fighting,” Zangrillo said.
Raiola, whose clients include AC Milan forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic, is one of the game’s most influential agents and most controversial characters.
He has been accused of raising players’ salaries to unsustainable levels and has been embroiled in a controversy over commissions paid on transfers.
In 2016, former Juventus general manager Giuseppe Marotta said that Riola earned 27 million euros ($28.3 million) from the sale of France international Pogba to Manchester United from Juventus that summer.
Football Leaks claimed that Riola had received 49 million euros from three parties in a then-world record 105 million-euro transfer.
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