Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid, Falcao and Moutinho at Monaco, Deco at Barcelona, ​​Danny at Dynamo and Zenit and even José Mourinho at Madrid - all these transfers known to us were supervised by one of the most influential people in world football . How a provincial DJ became a major player in the Portuguese transfer market - in a super interesting biographical article from the Portuguese column Football Tribune.

From DJ to Agent

However, Mendes did not really become a standing footballer. At the age of 25, he was invited to Varzim, then playing in the Premier League, but Jorge refused; they say, because of an oral agreement with Porto for the opportunity to watch in the Portuguese grand. Mendes did not become a “Dragon”, and his further career, as it were, came to naught by itself. At the age of 30, Jorge Mendes finished playing football, moved to the provincial Caminha, bought a nightclub there and began to rock on a DJ mixer. A carefree life without denying yourself anything and financial problems is perhaps the ideal option for a loser football player who has hung his boots on a nail. Probably, Mendes would have remained a rural DJ, periodically moonlighting either for his father or for his brother, if not for one unexpected, and, no doubt, fateful meeting.

Mendes has always been very accommodating and talented at making lucrative deals. To be sure, during his ten-year career as an entrepreneurial footballer, Jorge had decent connections in many areas, whether it was the fiscal department or even the council of agronomists working with the Chaves and Avençe football fields. Mendes had many acquaintances all over the country - and it doesn’t matter because of what and how, but on this very day the owner of a nightclub ended up in a Guimaraeshen bar. Jorge Mendes met the 22-year-old Vitoria Guimaraes goalkeeper Nunu, who, like Mendes himself, dreams of being in a top club. Jorge decided to help the goalkeeper and turned to his phone book - somewhere between the "installment doors" and Johnny Depp, there was the number of an unknown person from the Spanish "Deportivo". One way or another, in just a couple of weeks, Nunu moved from an average Portuguese team to a worthy Spanish club. Mendes received a generous reward from this deal and the signing of the first agency contract. It became clear that a DJ console and a sluggish life would not replace football and its inherent intrigues for the Portuguese adventurer.

Carier start

In 1996 Mendes opened his own agency called GestiFute. Nuno's successful transfer to Deportivo attracted the attention of many other players who want to change teams or, for example, get an improved contract at their current club. Gestifute grew rapidly, but like any other business, it was not without interference from competitors. Mendes made enemies with about the same success as friends. The main rival of Jorge Mendes in the transfer market is the most successful and famous agent at that time, Jose Veiga, who has his own entrepreneurial company Superfute.

In the 97th year, Mendes signed a contract with the young midfielder of Nacional from the second league. Literally this summer, someone Costinha surprises the whole country, moving from the outsider Madeira to the elite of French football Monaco. In a couple of months, the 23-year-old Costinha from a boy lost in the abyss of football turns into a national team-level defender. Successful deals flowed like water, and the tension between Mendes and Veiga grew.

At first, few people took the rivalry between Mendes and Veiga seriously. It's ridiculous: an upstart with a couple of successful deals against a status agent who works with Ruy Costa, Jardel, Luis Figo and even Zinedine Zidane. Mendes was underestimated and given too much time and freedom. In the late nineties, Viyega was the main supplier of Porto players, but either greed or banal bad luck killed Jose at one point. His client, Sergio Conceição, played superbly for the Dragons - of course, there were many offers from abroad, the player could move to a good club from Spain or Italy. Vijega "covered" all transfers without the knowledge of the player; of course, this is illegal, but such was the specificity of the agency activities of those years (however, I doubt that anything has changed much now). At one point, Viyega felt like the king of the situation and delivered an ultimatum: either Porto pays for the silence, or Conceição immediately leaves the team. Fortunately, the leadership of Porto is also not stupid - Viega, to put it mildly, was asked to get somewhere far away, and the Porto players were given the command to terminate their agreements with the agent. Gradually, the players of the "dragons" broke their contracts, and soon there was no one left of Viyega's 24 wards in Porto. And who do you think took advantage of this situation? Definitely Mendes. Now one of the main Portuguese clubs depended on him, success was close, but there were still several unresolved tasks.

The final victory was won in 2002. Everything happened at the Lisbon airport - Luis Figo was supposed to fly here any minute. Mendes was going to meet the best football player on the planet in order to convince him of the need for cooperation and distance from Viyega. Suddenly, Viyega himself was in the baggage claim area - the presence of Mendes infuriated him so much that he immediately began to spit on the reputation of a respectable gentleman and, in fact, on Luis Figo. A real fight ensued - and again, it's easy to guess who won the duel. One way or another, Vijega soon lost contracts with all the top players, especially Ronaldo and Quaresma. Jose ended his agent career and ran for the presidency of Benfica, and Mendes became a monopolist in the Portuguese football market - all the stars and promising players came under his tutelage.

Now that Jorge Mendes had taken over Portuguese football, there was work to be done in other European countries and top leagues. Soon, Mendes' clients dispersed throughout football Europe - Hugu Viano moved to Newcastle, Jorge Andrade went down the beaten path to Deportivo, and Paredes decided to try his hand at the Italian Reggina. Later, Mendes tried to arrange for the super-talent Quaresma in Barcelona, ​​but, as you yourself probably know, it all ended with the exchange of RQ7 in Porto. With an additional charge for Deco.

Jose Mourinho

Another key moment in the career of the Portuguese agent is the collaboration with José Mourinho. After winning the Champions League, Special unexpectedly said goodbye to his Brazilian agent Jose Bayek and signed a contract with Mendes. A call to Roman Abramovich - and Mourinho becomes the head coach of Chelsea. Together with the former Porto coach, three key victorious players move to London - Tiago, Paulo Ferreira and Ricardo Carvalho. Mourinho and Mendes have become not just partners, but real friends - Jose always consults with an agent about transfers and his career. Mendes brought players to Chelsea, Inter, and Real Madrid; in Madrid, for example, five GestiFute clients played last season.

In 2007, Maur and Mendes quarreled over the dismissal of José from Chelsea. The resentment did not last too long, and by the New Year, Mourinho and Jorge Mendes resumed cooperation.

"Manchester United"

Mendes found a common language with the president of Porto, Pinto da Costa, and became an active participant in the Portista's transfer scams. The sale of Anderson to Manchester United for 30 million euros is one of those deals that brought Mendes a round sum of agency fees. Of even greater interest was the absurd transfer of the world champion among the homeless Bebe: the former Guimaraes player played two matches in the basis of three seasons in Manchester. It's funny, but in his last team, Vitoria Guimaraes, Bebe did not play a single official match at all (the Portuguese joined the team in the winter transfer window). Moreover, Goncalo Reis, who later sued Mendes, was considered Bebe's official agent. Sir Alex Ferguson admitted that he had never seen Bebe in the game, and the purchase was made on the advice of his faithful assistant Queiroz. Manchester United paid £7m for an unknown footballer, and much of that sum ended up in Mendes' pockets; however, it was rumored that Vitoria Guimarães received no money from this transfer at all, and thus Jorge Mendes robbed United of about 8 million euros.

But there were also good deals. One Ronaldo will easily cover any transfer failure of the "devils" - more than 90 million euros net for a move to Real Madrid. In the same year as Anderson's purchase, Nani also moved to Manchester United, playing much better than the Brazilian midfielder. Few people know, but the appearance of Carlos Queiroz in Manchester is also the work of Mendes. In Real Madrid, Queiroz also ended up with the help of his agent, but even after a hopelessly disastrous season, the Portuguese coach easily returned to Ferguson's coaching staff.

"Dynamo"

Whoever was unlucky with Mendes was Dynamo - in negotiations with the Portuguese, Fedorychev was either under heavy hypnosis or under degrees of port wine. Having bought 11 Gestifute clients for two transfer windows, among which, by the way, was the Depor shopkeeper Nuno, the Dynamo management made a catastrophic mistake with dire consequences for the team. The bottom line is multimillion-dollar agency payments, dissatisfied Costinha and Manishe, and almost a dozen Portuguese-speaking players who do not understand what is happening here at all. Perhaps it was another typical Russian cut - it is impossible to explain, for example, the transfer of Nuno Assis, who went on loan to Benfica immediately after the transfer. The lease, by the way, was calculated for 3.5 years - I doubt that Assis even remembered his formal affiliation with Dynamo. Moreover, in the first season at Benfica, the player was caught doping and suspended for a year; and, to our great regret, Nunu did not try on the Muscovite T-shirt. The trio of thirty million Manishe-Costinha-Setaridis moved to Madrid, captured by Mendes players, and Fedorychev became disillusioned with football and turned his business to Dynamo in May 2005.

"Monaco"

In the summer of 2013, the Monegasques blew up the transfer market with the purchase of Falcao, Moutinho and James Rodriguez for more than 120 million euros. Approximately 25% of the amount, according to the official website of Gestifute, went to the accounts of Jorge Mendes. Portuguese football is doing something incredible in modern football by allowing agents to buy the rights to players. Neither in England, nor in Spain, nor even in Russia is there such a thing; Portugal, on the other hand, cannot refuse agency co-ownership due to the difficult financial situation in the country and the agents themselves, who have unlimited connections at the top. A similar situation occurs in Latin America, where there are five or six legal rights holders per football player and a dozen more fakes. There is a great example of Falcao: Mendes shared the rights to the player with the president of Porto da Costa, and a couple of years later he got him a job at the hospitable Atlético. The result - half the amount goes to the club, half - Mendes. Porto scouts are looking for new players, agreeing with Mendes, the agent invites the player to Portugal - and so on and on.

Now Mendes has lost interest in small deals and considers only top offers - fortunately, every year there are more and more potential buyers, despite the financial fair-play and other tricks of FIFA. Contrary to the general stereotype that all agents are crooks and thieves, Jorge Mendes can be called an honest and decent person. Unlike, for example, Mino Raiola, Mendes never took part of the players' salaries for himself, being content with percentages of the rights and one-time agency payments. Georges won his competitors in a fair fight; and if he lost, the differences turned into partnerships, as happened with other well-known agents Pino Zahavi and Paul Stretford. Mendes is unique in his ability to find a common language with completely different people. He can contact both Real Madrid and Barcelona at the same time, while not forgetting about his clients at Atlético. He calmly arranges a meeting with Pinto da Costa between negotiations with Sporting Lisbon and Benfica. Mendes' company has more than 200 clients, and ZhM himself may not be able to name each of them. José Mourinho, Luis Scolari, Carlos Queiroz, Simão, Anderson, Coentrão, Pepe, Ronaldo, Moutinho, Nani, Di Maria, Falcao, Yilmaz, Victor Valdes and many others - the name of each of these coaches and players brought Mendes huge sums and world fame .

Mendes and his wife Sandra

“Never give up,” Mendes concluded in his last, and perhaps only, big interview, dated 2006. Having lost his dream, Georges did not go out and found his true calling. And how can one disagree with British journalists: Jorge Mendes is, in fact, a real super agent.

BOOK

They say, Sandro Rossel he regrets very much that at one time he wrote and published a book of memoirs "Welcome to the real world". In it, the former president details his business relationship with Brazil and Ricardo Teixeira, at that time the main man in the Brazilian Football Confederation. Years later, this information greatly helped the investigation, which led to the arrest of Rossel in May on charges of money laundering on player transfers and exercising the rights to show several friendly matches of the Pentacampeons. The investigation did not even have to put together a mosaic of anonymous testimonies - everything they needed was found on the pages of the book.

There is every reason to believe that Georges Mendes, the football superspy of our time, will also soon begin to bite his elbows due to an excessive penchant for writing. In 2015, his biography "The Mendes Code. All the secrets of the best agent in the world" was published, where, among other things, a lot is told about Carlos Osorio de Castro- confidant and lawyer of the Portuguese agent. One of the sections of the book is called: "Carlos Osoriu. Defender of Mendes."

During trips, when the Portuguese retinue follows him around, de Castro is always a few steps behind, inconspicuous and silent, although he is the key figure in negotiations with football players and clubs. His duties include legal support for the agent and his clients so that they do not need their own lawyers. There are several photographs in the book that allow one to appreciate the significance of this man - in one of them de Castro, Mendes and falcao they raise glasses of wine, marking the transition of the Colombian to, to the other - along with and celebrating the signing of a contract with Barcelona.

SCHEME

But the most interesting thing is that the authors of the biography are journalists Miguel Cuesta and Jonathan Sanchez- they call de Castro the main creator of the tax scheme, because of which already a dozen clients of the Portuguese agent have serious problems with justice.

What is this scheme? At the first stage, Mendes' client cedes 60% of his image rights (40% remain with the club) to two companies located in Ireland - Multisports & Image Management (MIM) and Polaris Sports . Thus, a footballer (or coach) gets the opportunity to pay taxes on his income at a very comfortable rate - in Ireland it is only 12.5% ​​(for comparison, in Spain - 45-47%). Then the money, net of taxes, goes offshore, mainly to the British Virgin Islands, where shell companies are set up - often in the same building in the city of Road Town, the capital of the islands. These firms have accounts in several Swiss banks, where the finances cleared of all tax husks are sent.

By a surprising coincidence, Jorge Mendes' clients' accounts were opened in these same banks. The intentions of the athletes are obvious, but what does the Portuguese agent and his confidant, Carlos Osorio, have to do with it, you ask? And while the Irish Polaris directly owned by Mendes (62.5%) and his nephew and right hand in the business Luis Correia(32.5%), and Andy Quinn, owner MIM - one of the employees of the famous Gestifute , Mendes' company for the provision of agency services to football players. All this is written in black and white in the biography of the Portuguese.

Since the end of 2014, when the Spanish Tax Authority tightened tax rules for image rights, this scheme has attracted increasing attention: inspections began, then investigations, and by now already seven clients Gestifute have been charged with tax evasion, and four others are under inspection. Here is the full list of Mendes' 11 Friends:

14.7 million euros from 2011 to 2014.

5.6 million euros from 2012 to 2013.

3.7 million euros from 2010 to 2013.

3.3 million euros from 2011 to 2012.

2 million euros from 2011 to 2012.

1.3 million euros from 2012 to 2014.

1.3 million euros from 2012 to 2013.

Checked by the tax office.

(Filipe Luis and Jackson Martinez are not clients Gestifute, but Jorge Mendes was most directly involved in the transfer of the Brazilian from to and back, as well as the transfer of the Colombian player to the Chinese).

Radamel FALCAO was the one who "surrendered" Mendes' schemes. Photo REUTERS

FALCAO

However, until recently, the problems of his clients bypassed Mendes. It was enough for the players to say that they were not aware of what was happening, it was all too complicated and they just did what the consultants told them. The investigation did not want to deal with the consultants, a fine was imposed, the athlete paid for it, and the case was closed. This is what Pepe and Mourinho did (who, however, are being brought to justice again), and so are Di Maria, Fabio Coentrão and Ricardo Carvalho. Obviously, there was some kind of gentlemen's agreement - the names of Mendes and Carlos Ozoriu never surfaced in the testimony of the accused. Until June of this year - until the hearing of the Falcao case was held.

Falcao, as if in spirit, told the investigation that it was Mendes and his confidant who came up with this scheme, which they suggested he use from the first day in Gestifute . For the first time the name of the Portuguese agent was mentioned in connection with the tax scandals shaking the last year of Spanish football. The country's tax service did not fail to take advantage of the opportunity - Jorge Mendes was invited "for a conversation", and all transactions with his participation over the past few years have come under the inspection microscope.

CRISTIANO RONALDO

Georges Mendes-Miloslavsky himself denies any participation in the tax operations of his wards. "My professional activity is exclusively related to mediation in the transfer of my clients from one club to another, as well as in the renewal of their existing contracts or the conclusion of new ones," he quoted him as saying. El Confidential with reference to the official statement of the head Gestifute.

Mendes also claims that each of his clients has their own consultant, and that they all used the same scheme for distributing income from the sale of their image rights, conducting all transactions through Irish firms owned by him, is their own choice, accident and not Furthermore. Usually protecting his athletes like his own children, here the Portuguese agent took a clear position - his lifeboat is designed only for him.

It will be all the more interesting to find out how the hearing of the case of Cristiano Ronaldo, who will appear in court on July 31, will end. Ronaldo and Mendes have been inseparable friends almost from the very beginning of Cristiano's career, and if a footballer names Mendes among his advisers, will the agent continue to insist that the tax affairs of his clients are beyond his competence? Will he give up on his most valuable asset? Be that as it may, one thing is clear - the book "The Mendes Code" could not contain all the secrets of the best agent in the world. The main secrets have yet to be told.

Just 20 years ago, Jorge Mendes was a modest nightclub owner in Portugal. It was then that he met goalkeeper Nunu, whom he helped arrange his move to Deportivo. Thus began the story of the most powerful football agent in the world, who will be an extremely important figure for Manchester United this summer.

"Jorge is the Cristiano Ronaldo of the agency world," the Portuguese striker himself said during last year's documentary about himself...

The film was largely produced by the real Madrid player's agent himself, and Mendes did not miss the opportunity to demonstrate himself at work. In this, however, there was no deception. People who have crossed paths with the most powerful football agent in the world convey just such an image. Mendes talks non-stop on one of the phones, while discussing Ronaldo's achievements on camera. There is no clear certainty as to whom Mendes is addressing at a particular moment. Nevertheless, if only for a moment, the Portuguese agent will make each parallel interlocutor consider himself his best friend.

Ronaldo, whose dinner he attends almost in the guise of the "godfather" of the entire football family, is one of the two biggest players in the world, whom Mendes made a Manchester United player at the age of 17. He is also one of the two biggest clients for Jorge himself, although it is more correct to say that the agent has long formed friendships with both Cristiano and Jose Mourinho. On the sporting front, Mourinho, like Ronaldo and Messi, may compete with Josep Guardiola, but in terms of marketing and fame, Jose is still the most famous coach in world football. By and large, Mendes has the first real "celebrity" of his profession as allies.

Last Friday, Mourinho was officially announced as the new manager of Manchester United, which was facilitated not only by the resume of the Portuguese coach, but also by the work of Mendes himself. In a good way, these were not just negotiations - within six months, Jorge and Jose staged a real PR campaign to promote Mourinho to Old Trafford. The man, whose influence extends not only to football players, but to entire clubs, used every leverage to leave Manchester United no other choice. Mendes, when it came to interest in Jose from a particular club, could play the role of a representative of both sides for the press, confirming the information both on behalf of the club and on behalf of the coach.

Some analysts are convinced that the state of Jorge Mendes has already crossed over a billion dollars, and the key to the success of the Portuguese is that he brought the concept of agency business to a completely different level. Mendes runs the agency company Gestifute, whose clients include football players Diego Costa, David De Gea and Angel Di Maria, among others. Office Jorge, unlike its competitors, allows third parties to own part of the rights of football players. Which, using companies registered with associates, is often owned by Mendes himself. But these are just particulars. In fact, entire structures have long fallen under the influence of Jorge, and in recent years he has been representing the interests of various clubs on an ongoing basis - in Valencia, for example, he acts almost as a leader. In addition, in clubs from Monaco to Real Madrid, he has a lot of weight, acting either as an adviser or as a direct executor of the task of buying / selling players or inviting coaches. When it comes to the next big transfer talks, one cannot be completely sure who Mendes represents in them - the club or the player himself.

The same applies to some extent to Manchester United and Mourinho. Cristiano Ronaldo was the first player Mendes signed for the Manchester United, followed by Nani, Anderson and Mendes' memorable compatriot Bebe. Back in the days of Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United squad was strengthened by David De Gea, and after the departure of the Scot, Mendes organized deals to sign Radamel Falcao and Angel Di Maria.

The last two are especially important in the context of Mourinho's invitation. Sir Alex had a very high opinion of Mendes, noting the attention with which he treats both his players and their clubs. Ed Woodward, who succeeded David Gill as the board of Manchester United, could not boast of either experience or great connections in the football world, so in 2014 - when United decided to spend a lot on a new coach - he turned to Mendes for help. Ferguson always approved of working with the Portuguese, and Woodward got access to big European names. Neither Di Maria nor Falcao received the attention they deserved from manager Louis Van Gaal, and it is rumored that Mendes was hurt almost on a personal level. Once again, he managed to sell Angel superbly, but it can be assumed that Jorge took particular pleasure in turning the deal between Mourinho and Manchester United behind the back of the Dutch coach.

Mendes should not be presented as a person who does everything for his own benefit. The Portuguese could not have achieved such success if he only offered promises to football bosses. Not all agent projects become successful, but Jorge is enthusiastic about both the development of players and entire clubs. He's efficient at what he does: when French Monaco got rich off Dmitri Rybolovlev's money, Mendes was there to offer the costly services of his players. At the same time that the club's financial situation turned around, he pulled off several outbound deals, including the same loan spell for Falcao, first to United and then to Chelsea. Colleagues sometimes reproach Mendes for wanting to take players and coaches away from under their wing, but this criticism is not only justified, but also complimentary. After all, no other agent will achieve for these people the signing of more promising and profitable agreements.

In this regard, Porto President Pinto Da Costa notes the importance of Mendes not only for football, but for the entire Portuguese economy. Georges is said to have accounted for 68 per cent of the transfers of the big three local clubs this century, and he has certainly been responsible for most of the box office sales of Liga Sagres players to European clubs. "Several hundred million euros have come here, but the country does not understand this," Da Costa is sure.

Mourinho Mendes maintains a special relationship. Like Ronaldo, he is one of the two main clients, and also a man who, like Georges, is passionate about the process of football manipulation. At Real Madrid, Mendes spent hours in Mourinho's office, and now, having built a relationship with Ed Woodward, he can become a full-fledged adviser to the Manchester club. It can be assumed that Mourinho and Mendes were presented to United in the same package. The Mancunians have received a successful coach, but at the same time - a precious client and friend of Mendes, which will make the world's most influential agent especially attentive and supportive of Manchester United. José is Jorge's sales person, and the success of this coach is especially important for the 50-year-old agent.