Erling Haaland’s life, the death of Mino Raiola and Haaland Sr...

Erling Haaland’s move to Manchester City was engineered by his father Alfie Haaland, the late Mino Raiola, and his current agent, Rafaela Pimenta. In an interview with The Telegraph, Pimenta tells how the first meeting to sign the player for her agency took place and states that Alfie himself already had a plan in place to go to Manchester City.

“Alfie Haaland is fantastic. Because he’s been there and done that before. Alfie came to the office the first time and we met with Mino, he already had a plan. Alfie’s plan was ‘my plan is that I need to have a plan and I need agents who make plans’. So, he has prepared very carefully. It’s planned every day. I tell the players ‘if you don’t know where you’re going when you start, you’re not going to get there. Maybe you won’t get there, but I guarantee you won’t get there if you don’t know the way’. So yes, we made a plan from the beginning. He wanted to play with Guardiola. He wants to be there and we know what he can do,” Pimenta said.

Haaland’s ‘normal’ life

She also answered questions about Haaland’s life. Pimenta says he has a very normal life, that he is obsessed with self development and that among his favourite matchday meals is lasagne.

“Erling is amazing. His house is normal, his environment is normal and his car is normal. He also likes lasagne. He doesn’t eat anything extravagant before the match. People cook lasagne for him. His father makes him lasagne and takes it to him. He always goes to the same place on holiday. He doesn’t need to go to Dubai, Los Angeles, New York... He goes home to Norway, ‘let’s go chop wood’ and ‘let’s go to the beach’.

“That’s the recipe for success. His life is normal, but football is state-of-the-art. He looks things up, he researches on the internet, and he wants to know everything. He will even choose his sponsors in order to improve his game. He will choose everything based on what will help him perform better,” she said.

Raiola’s death and thousands of phone calls

Pimenta went on to discuss the death of her colleague and friend Mino Raiola. She acknowledged that she misses his presence and also shed light on the ugliest part of the football industry. She claims that her players received thousands of calls to switch agencies with the first (false) news of Raiola’s death and when it happened three days later.

“There were a lot of bad people calling the players (when they found out about Mino’s death). One called Walter Benitez the day Mino died. Wanda, his wife, picked up the phone and said ‘shame on you’. Before Mino died, they called Areola. Thousands of people called Simons, Haaland, Pogba. They even called me and said: ‘If you need help I can come and help you run the business,’” she added.

The lawyer has ‘inherited’ Raiola’s football portfolio and continues to work with big stars including Matthijs De Ligt, Marco Verratti, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Paul Pogba, Ryan Gravenberch and Haaland among many others.