Erling Haaland’s agent dramatically demands transfer change hours before deadline
Erling Haaland’s agent, Rafaela Pimenta, inherited the striker as a client months before his 2022 move to Manchester City from Borussia Dortmund following the death of Mino Raiola
Football super-agent Rafaela Pimenta has called for the sport’s transfer system to change on the eve of transfer deadline day. The qualified lawyer, whose highest-profile player is Erling Haaland, believes clubs currently have too much power.
Pimenta, 53, previously worked closely with Mino Raiola and has inherited his clients since the super-agent’s death almost 4 years ago. She also looks after under-pressure Liverpool head coach, Arne Slot, as well as the Manchester United pair Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui.
Speaking to the BBC, she said: “There needs to be a change; there’s too much power for clubs, players are sometimes hosts of situations. I’m not fighting for chaos; we need the transfer system to make the whole thing work, but we need more balance.
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“We are in a transfer window, and I can bet you, because I see it at the end of every window, someone will cry. There’s always a player crying because he could have gone, needed to go, and a club said they want £1m more.”
“Football used to be more human; a football director or an owner would have a special relationship with the player. If a player went to them and said, ‘Please, I need to go,’ they would find a solution.
“Today, football is becoming so much of a business that there is a risk that players become an asset on the balance sheet; an asset has no voice, no feelings, no human needs. The challenge is to find a balance between the asset and the human being.”
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The European Court of Justice found last October that some of FIFA’s transfer rules are anti-competitive and restrict freedom of movement contrary to European Union law. Their verdicts followed Lassana Diarra’s lawsuit against FIFA, claiming damages over a failed move in 2014.
FIFPRO, the global representative organization for professional footballers, welcomed the findings. They said in a statement: “The European Court of Justice has ruled that a central part of the FIFA transfer system, in place since 2001, constitutes a restriction of competition by object and a violation of the free movement of workers.
“On behalf of professional football players worldwide, FIFPRO welcomes these findings. The ECJ has just handed down a major ruling on the regulation of the labor market in football (and, more generally, in sport), which will change the landscape of professional football.”
FIFA, however, played down the significance of the judgment. Football’s governing body said through a spokesperson: “FIFA is satisfied that the legality of key principles of the transfer system have been reconfirmed in [this] ruling.
“The ruling only puts in question two paragraphs of two articles of the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players, which the national court is now invited to consider. FIFA will analyze the decision in coordination with other stakeholders before commenting further.”
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