Salernitana director Walter Sabatini, who famously clashed with Mino Raiola many times, reveals a wonderful gesture made in private during a moment of crisis.
Tributes have been pouring in for Raiola, as the legendary agent has died in Milan at the age of 54 after a long illness.
Raiola was by no means universally popular, as his brash style of negotiating and speaking in public tended to rub some up the wrong way.
Clubs and clients: football world mourns the death of Mino Raiola
These included current Salernitana director of sport Sabatini, who has worked over the years at clubs like Roma, Bologna and Inter too.
Yet it was he who revealed something nobody knew about Raiola behind the scenes.
“Mino, you wouldn’t have given me the chance to say this in life, you’d have caused controversy as usual,” wrote Sabatini on Salernitana’s social media channels.
“We argued a lot, Mino, but I cannot forget that in the moment when I was gravely ill, you called my wife and offered to pay for me to go to America for treatment.
“It was an act of extraordinary generosity, one you didn’t need to make, and you did it silently. Thank you, Mino.”
The incident was likely in September 2018, when life-long chain-smoker Sabatini was hospitalised in Rome with breathing difficulties.
He was working at Sampdoria as the technical director at the time.
🙏@OfficialUSS1919 #Sabatini@MinoRaiola pic.twitter.com/CSwFcWoCr8
— Mirko Calemme (@mirkocalemme) April 30, 2022