At 15:30 and 19:45 a special interview will air, "The lady of the market", the exclusive interview by Gianluca Di Marzio to the lawyer Rafaela Pimenta on Sky Sport 24, channel 200 of the Sky decoder. The special interview will also be available on Sky On Demand.
For the first time, Rafaela Pimenta tells her story in a television interview: from her relationship with Raiola and her relations with her clients: below, her words to the microphones of Sky Sport.
"The lady of the market": the interview with Rafaela Pimenta broadcasted on Sky Sport.
Rafaela Pimenta began by talking about her relationship with her clients: "The player gives you strength. I hope other women will also find inspiration in me for whatever they want to do."
On her past: "I was a law teacher, but already there I started talking about football and talking about sports law. I've never really known another world from a professional point of view."
On how she met Raiola: "I met Mino in Brazil, I was working for a company of Rivaldo and César Sampaio. If you remember them, they had a company. It was called CSR. I was doing the legal part, the constitution of this club. One fine day I go to their CSR office and there was someone sitting there, smoking like crazy and asking 1000 questions. But really 1000 questions, he wanted to know the law, what the country was like. He wanted to know everything and so we started chatting. On the second day he showed up there with a guy and said: 'This is a player from São Paulo and he has to go to Italy: what should I do? Find me a way'' and he was serious, because at the time everything was very new in Brazil. From that moment on we really started to work seriously, to do more structured, more organized things. And at a certain point Mino says to me: 'So to do things seriously, why don't you come to Europe?' And he found me a foothold in Padua and I thought I would do a year calmly, do everything and learn. Two months later there was already so much mess that I was hanging out with Mino everywhere. And I came here where we really started working."
On her relationship with Raiola: "It was very intense. He could explode thirty times a day, I never. When he was nervous, I was always quiet. If he was angry with you today, he wouldn't remember the next day. He was a very tolerant person."
Rafaela Pimenta also spoke about the role of a prosecutor: "Our job is similar to that of a lawyer, but the lawyer cannot have an opinion. The prosecutor is the one who sits with you and evaluates with you. If the player doesn't feel like making a choice, we'll take it. We're like a kind of family."
Rafaela Pimenta continued: "The last words Mino said to me are the ones he always told me: you have to be happy. You don't have to stop your life, you have to do what makes you feel good."
"Mino had no battles, he wanted to do things without prejudice. He wanted to propose something to enter the system and do things together in football, because what we do is a reflection of what players and clubs do."
On Haaland: "I think Haaland has a secret weapon: his dad. He doesn't get excited, he doesn't get lost and I think he never will. I've never seen a player go looking for money. Those come by themselves." On Italian football: "I remember when I started this job, I asked the Brazilian players: 'Do you want to come to Europe?', they said: 'Yes, where?'. Me: 'Do you want to go to England?' and they would say: 'What have I done to you?' This is because they wanted to go to Italy... Everyone wanted to go to Italy. Why can't we revolutionize again and do more?"
On Pogba's return to Juventus: "Juventus didn't come here to talk about Paul. They had come to watch the tennis tournament, then they went to the office to ask how Mino was doing. We said goodbye and when we were there this idea was born to call Paul and talk to him a bit and see how he saw the idea of returning to Juventus. Sometimes they asked Erling yes: how he was, how his story was, how he was going. And then for the clause, here the lawyer speaks. I can't speak."
On Balotelli: "Mario is a guy who does his own thing, he does as he wants. It has always been like this and it does so with happiness. So as long as he is convinced of what he does, happy him and happy us. Who are we to have an idea for him?"
On Donnarumma and the choice to leave Milan: "If we look back it is the right choice. He plays, he's fine and he doesn't complain."
On De Ligt and the farewell to Juventus: He said: 'It's my time. From the beginning I had a project to make certain steps and my time has come', although he is always grateful. I don't agree when they say he criticizes Juventus, because that's not what he does."
Rafaela Pimenta spoke about the talents to keep an eye on: "I think that our young man who has to go up for next year is Xavi Simons".
Rafaela Pimenta concluded: "My first contract said that my brother would be my slave for a day. Poorly written, in green, obviously all crooked. But I have it because someone kept it. So as a child I always wanted to be a lawyer and the spirit of the lawyer, at least for me, is to represent and defend. And here it's all the time."
ARTICLE IN UPDATE
Translated by Mohammed Ibrahim
