Enzo Raiola walks among the desks of the editorial staff of Calciomercato.com. One glance at the phone, two, three… the fingers run quickly over the keyboard; a couple of phone calls in a few minutes. “Enzo, we’re almost there.” He smiles. A guest of our site, after the death of his cousin Mino he founded Team Raiola and continued to manage many Serie A footballers and beyond. In our interview he opened up completely, got excited and laughed; he went back in time telling when he discovered Donnarumma on a suburban pitch: “We are in the province of Naples, a friend of mine from a football school advises me to see this boy which has something special for him – Raiola tells us – he wasn’t wrong. It was immediately clear that he was in another category. Today we also remained close to Gigio’s family, when I go home I always stop by to say hello.”
Is it true that he could have gone to Inter as a child?
“At Inter, at Juve… everywhere. Everyone wanted him. He was betrothed to another club, but he was waiting for the call from Milan: Bianchessi forced the operation, Galliani believed in it. So we closed it” .
Is it true that Juventus also looked for him in the following years?
“There have always been rumors and probably at some points it was a goal, but they never made any concrete attempts.”
After winning the 2021 European Championship with Gigio you went to Sardinia to see Berlusconi, can you tell us how it went?
“I often have faded memories of the past, but that day was unforgettable. As soon as we arrived they showed us around the entire structure of Villa Certosa, outside the main house Berlusconi and his partner Marta were waiting for us. The president hugged us , we went to the terrace to have lunch and then we listened to some music with Maestro Apicella. At home I also have a CD of theirs that Berlusconi gave us.”
What were the reasons for the break with Milan?
“In that period we had moved from the Berlusconi era to a club that was struggling to carry out a project; Gigio had a career ahead of him, remaining in that context was not the right choice. If at that moment there had been the Milan of today with the Champions League showcase, I think he would have stayed and we would have talked about another story. But it wasn’t the only reason that made us leave.”
What happened?
“We had the perception that the club didn’t want to keep Donnarumma, there wasn’t a great desire to close the renewal agreement.”
Will he return to Serie A in the future?
“Football is beautiful because it’s unpredictable, anything can happen. Today I think it’s tough, but never say never.”
@francGuerrieri
