Mino Raiola has spoken about how he engineered Pavel Nedved’s move to Juventus, and reveals he had an offer from Inter.
The Czech former midfielder has spoken about getting a call from then-Inter Coach Jose Mourinho to try to tempt him to Inter, but says his heart wouldn’t allow it, and Raiola admits Nedved – who is now a Bianconero director – never wanted to leave.
“His presence at Juve has always been a contrarian thing for me,” the agent told Gazzetta dello Sport.
Mino Raiola has spoken about how he engineered Pavel Nedved’s move to Juventus, and reveals he had an offer from Inter.
The Czech former midfielder has spoken about getting a call from then-Inter Coach Jose Mourinho to try to tempt him to Inter, but says his heart wouldn’t allow it, and Raiola admits Nedved – who is now a Bianconero director – never wanted to leave.
“His presence at Juve has always been a contrarian thing for me,” the agent told Gazzetta dello Sport.
“He’s always vowed ‘I’ll never leave Juve’. You know those people who join a cult and soon become the leader? That’s Pavel here [at Juve].
“So much so, that when I had an argument with [then Juventus President Jean-Claude] Blanc, I had an offer from Inter, [Massimo] Moratti had arranged a dinner, and there was also Mourinho who said ‘Come to us and win the treble’.
“He spoke with some of the Agnellis, some said ‘go’, and others said ‘if you go, it will break my heart’. He decided not to go.
“Then he called me, saying ‘if there’s a God Inter won’t win the treble’.”
Raiola also revealed the details of Nedved’s move to Turin in 2001.
“Pavel and his wife thought they were fine in Rome.
“I, however, realised that it was time for him to leave, that Lazio could not keep going as they had been.
“So I said to [then-President of Lazio Sergio] Cragnotti, ‘Nedved loves Lazio more than you do, if you tell him to go to help the club, he’ll do it, but if you offer him one Euro in salary he’ll stay’.
“We met at the Hilton in Montemario, and Cragnotti was there with his son, Massimo, and he says: ‘Pavel, do me a favour, I can’t sell you, but reduce your contract and then we can negotiate’.
“They leave and it comes out in the papers that Pavel had renewed.
“I knew that [Juventus director Luciano] Moggi was ready to sign him, but I didn’t know that Massimo Cragnotti wanted to do me a favour.
“Listen to this: we get to Formello, Pavel is happy, ready to sign with a Cartier pen given to him by his wife.
“I look at the contract, and tell him he can sign it. But then Massimo comes in and gives him another contract, and says ‘there, sign that’.
“Pavel looks at me, and I say ‘calm down, I’ll sort things out’.
“Pavel could have signed 10 times, but they changed the agreement, a deal is a deal.
“So I call Moggi. Luciano was intelligent, but also sly. We had agreed to keep it a secret, but he broke the news that Pavel was in Turin.
“We come in on the private plane and there were 40 journalists.
“Meanwhile, I had to convince his wife. It was July in Rome, the light was breaking through the trees, the birds were singing, it was warm. We get there [to Turin] and the people are running around in fur!
“She comes off the plane crying, and I was like ‘no, it’s just today that’s like this!’
“So we go to see [then-chief executive Antonio] Giraudo, he picks up Pavel, and says: ‘Do you want to come to Juve? Because your agent is not normal, so if you don’t want to come we can change it'.
“Pavel asks for a pen. I go into a cold sweat. They give him a piece of paper, he signs it and gives it to me, and says ‘Here Mino, do what you want, I’m leaving’.
“So I turn to them: ‘What was the deal? I think we’ll have to rethink it’.”