It’s fair to say a lot of what Mino Raiola says should probably be taken with a pinch of salt.
The ‘super-agent’ appears intent on launching himself into the public eye, whether that’s by engineering big money moves or being photographed swimming in Miami with Paul Pogba.
Raiola has got where he is by commanding some of the most impressive clients in world football – Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Romelu Lukaku, to name but a few.
And then there was Mario Balotelli. When Raiola was finally finished adding zeros to his pay cheque after the Pogba deal, he had the rather unpleasant – and almost impossible – task of finding a club who would actually be willing to take Balotelli on.
The Italian eventually ended up at Nice on a free transfer, such was Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp’s desperation to get rid of the misfit striker.
But Klopp’s view of Balotelli has clearly irked Raiola, who recently called the Anfield manager a “piece of s***.”
As quoted by the Independent, the agent slammed Klopp for the Balotelli saga, saying:
“At the end of the day, he was a player of Liverpool and you need to treat him with respect. And he (Klopp) didn’t do that.
“Mario asked several times to have a friendly match. You can train all you want but, at the end of the day, you need 90 minutes, you need a friendly. He never considered him for 60 days.
“I’m not judging him as a trainer – I don’t like him as a trainer at all – but you have to let him play.”
There’s clearly no love lost between the two, but the ever fame-hungry Raiola quickly added that he’d happily deal with Liverpool again. He’ll probably be waiting some time before Klopp gets on the phone to him.
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