BarcelonaIn one of the quick questionnaires he had to answer before becoming president of Barça, Joan Laporta was made to choose between two of the agents who, at the beginning of 2021, moved the most money in the world of football. Two businessmen linked to the ball with whom he had made deals in his first term in the Camp Nou box office, from Márquez and Quaresma to Ibrahimovic, passing through Deco. “Mino Raiola or Jorge Mendes?”, they asked the then candidate, who got out of the impasse with the playful style he often applies in his appearances. “Mino Mendes”, answered Laporta, aware that he could not choose between two representatives who wanted him to return to the Camp Nou box to strengthen his relationship with Barça.
A few weeks after taking office, the president took very little time to meet with Raiola to talk about what he wanted Ronaldinho to be in his second term. Erling Haaland, today Manchester City’s goalscorer, was called upon to mark an era at Barça, but the high pretensions of his surroundings, in contrast to Blaugrana’s economic constraints, made the operation impossible. However, in order to look good with the Lombard agent in the face of future negotiations, a false interest in hiring Donnarumma, another of Raiola’s cubs who was at the time negotiating his signing for PSG, was leaked from Barcelona. The maneuver forced the Parisian club to raise their bid for the Milan international, but it did not bear fruit for Haaland, who officially signed for City on May 10, 2022, 10 days after Raiola died due to ‘a lung disease. However, the main heir to the expizzer’s empire, Rafaela Pimenta, maintains her affection for Laporta. “I will tell him yes if he asks me for something,” he said a month and a half ago about the president in a newspaper interview As.
With Haaland unattainable and revaluing himself in the Premier League, Mendes is, with the permission of veteran Pini Zahavi – Lewandowski’s agent -, the representative with the most influence in the future of Barça. So much so, that he no longer needs to take his private plane or reserve a table in the Via Veneto reservation to intervene in various market operations of Barça interest, whether inbound or outbound. The last meeting was held in Porto, where Laporta closed the day by going to the Champions League match between the local team and Inter Milan, a team in which there are interesting targets, such as Brozovic or the possibility of sending Jordi Alba or Kessie. Mateu Alemany was also part of the talks: his harmony with the Portuguese super agent is excellent. In fact, during his time at Peter Lim’s Valencia (2017-2019), the Majorcan executive made a point of negotiating with him. André Gomes – who would change Mestalla for Camp Nou in 2016 and currently plays on loan from Everton to Lille –, Otamendi, Guedes, Rodrigo or Correia were some of the assets they managed together. Only the last one continues in Mestalla.
Lamine Yamal and Alejandro Balde, the last two pearls hunted by Jorge Mendes
Alemany resigned from Valencia due to discrepancies in the preparation of the squad and a year and a half later he joined Laporta’s Barça, which shares with Valencia the financial difficulties and Mendes’ enormous ascendancy in the club’s footballing future. The Portuguese’s latest acquisition will turn 16 this summer and will therefore be able to sign his first professional contract as a Barca player. Lamine Yamal, great pearl of the future of La Masia, stops working with Iván de la Peña – agent of Gavi and Eric Garcia – and becomes part of the Gestifute empire. The young forward from Matarón, recently excluded from the list of the Spanish under-17 team for a “serious act of indiscipline”, joins an orbit where there is already Alejandro Balde, the starting left back of Xavi’s team who also he is waiting to sign a new clause, in his case as a full-fledged footballer of the first team. Both operations are vital in the short and medium term.
Lamal and Balde represent two portfolios that Mendes will oversee with the intention of them continuing to be linked to Barça. Instead, there are more doubts with Ansu Fati and Nico González, two players who are also in the hands of the Portuguese. The striker has not recovered his best version, he is not a starter for Xavi and the club, need to make a drawer with sales to obtain fair play financial, has already tasked the super agent to find a win-win offer. And the midfielder, on loan to Valencia, also does not have the utmost confidence of the coach from Valais, a privilege that Abde does have, a footballer for whom Mendes, acting as an intermediary, has already collected proposals from teams that want to stay – take ownership of it when the transfer to Osasuna ends.
Ansu, Nico and Abde, should they be transferred, would leave a net gain for Barça and a corresponding commission for Gestifute, who also invoiced last summer for the signing of Kounde and aspires to do the same in a few months with Marco Asensio, who is ending his contract with Madrid, and Rúben Neves, who is dying to leave Wolves.
Jorge Mendes holds, in many ways, the keys to Barça’s sporting future. Meanwhile, Joan Laporta defends a Blaugrana institution free from external controls, but makes it easy when the person knocking on the door is the most powerful representative in world football.