30 Interesting Facts Every Football Fan Should Know About Jorge Mendes

26 January 2019, 3:04 pm EST By Ruby Karnick

Jorge Mendes, currently the head of GestiFute company, is one among the most influential football agents in the world, who is often referred by the name - "super-agent." Here are some little known facts about the Portuguese football agent:

According to Forbes, he is ranked number 2, among the World’s Most Powerful Sports Agent 2018.
Mendes was born Jorge Paulo Agostinho Mendes, on January 06, 1966, in Lisbon, Portugal. He is known by his nickname ‘Cabanas.’
He was brought up in modest surroundings, living in a housing development meant for employees of Petrogal where his father worked.
Mendes represents some of the greatest talent the sport has to offer, namely superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo, James Rodriguez, Angel Di Maria and Diego Costa.
He has negotiated over $ 1 billion in active contracts and manages an impressive client roster totaling 114.
He married Sandra in Portugal, with Cristiano Ronaldo as his best man. He is father to three children, Beatriz Mendes, Jorge Mendes Junior and Barbara Mendes.
Mendes link with football began when as 20 years old he moved to be with his brother in Viana do Castelo with a dream of playing for a lower-league side Vianense and making it as a semi-professional footballer in Portuguese.
Mendes claims to have conducted 68% of all player transactions at Portugal’s great clubs, Sporting Lisbon, Benfica and Porto, in the decade 2001-10.
Early in his career after being rejected by number of football clubs, he worked as a DJ, then he opened a video store, a beach bar and a nightclub in Caminha, northern Portugal.
When agreeing to play for Lanheses, Mendes did not let go a business opportunity and took on the job of managing the advertising at the stadium, which benefitted the club as well as Mendes.

Even in his youth the businessman in him would help his mother sell her woven straw hats and baskets at the Fonte da Telha beach at weekends and also took to selling old clothes at flea markets.
In 1996, at his nightclub Luz do Mar, where he made his first deal as an agent. He brokered a deal for Nuno Espirito Santo, a goalkeeper from Vitoria de Guimaraes to Deportivo de La Coruna.
Mendes is the head of the ‘GestiFute Company’ which was founded in 1996 and is registered with Portuguese Football Federation.
In summer of 2002, he made his first major international transfer when he took Hugo Viana to Newcastle for €12 million with the help of Proactive Sports Management.
The defining movement came when in September 2002, when a 17 year old soon to be super star Cristiano Ronaldo, ended his association with Veiga and switched to Mendes. He negotiated a contract for young client to move from Sporting Club de Portugal to Manchester United for £ 12 million, much more than £5 million offer from Arsenal had bid earlier.
In July 2004, he brokered a deal between Jose Mourinho and Pini Zahavi of Chelsea in London to finalize a four-year contract worth a reported £ 10 million, when he decided to move from F.C Porto.
According to the Guardian, Chelsea paid Mendes € 2.45 million for three of his clients Carvalho, Paulo Ferreira and Tiago Mendes, who followed Mourinho as transfer fee and to ensuring his millionaire players turned up for the training on time.
The sports industry has given Mendes a nickname ‘Super-Agent’ for his reputation to secure extremely lucrative deals during the final hours of the transfer window.
It was a global headline when the stakes of Mendes client, the 19 year old French prodigy Anthony Martial rose from $ 34 million to $ 55 million before it reached $ 90 million with incentive and endorsements for transfer from Monaco FC to Manchester United.
Mendes’s ascent to football ‘super agent’ has been stratospheric at a time when an understanding was formed between Carlos Freitas of Sporting Lisbon, Paul Stretford of Formation and Gestifute, to move most of Portugal’s fine generation of players to England’s money soaked Premier League.

After Jose Mourinho’s shock exit from Chelsea, Mendes oversaw his move to Inter Milan in 2008 for a fee that made him the highest paid coach in the world.
In the same year 2008, he also handled Luiz Felips Scolari and helped him secure a three-year contract to Chelsea worth between £ 5.5 million and £ 6.25 million.
Mendes has a well established connection in South America and in 2007, he was instrumental in bringing Anderson from Porto to Manchester United along with Nani for £ 46 million.
In August 2010, when Mendes secured a transfer for Tiago Correia or better known as Bebe, from Vitoria to Manchester United, for £ 7.2 million, Bebe’s former agent Goncalo Reis complained to FIFA IN May 2012 that Mendes improperly poached Bebe from him. He was subjected to criminal investigation in Portugal.
Mendes brokered four of the seven biggest deals in 2014, from which he earned approximately £ 30 million. He secured a contract for James Rodriguez to Monaco, for £ 63 million, Angel Di Maria for £ 60 million to Manchester United, Diego Costa to Chelsea for £ 32 million and Eliaquim Mangala to Manchester City for £ 32 million.
On September 22, 2014, in was reported by the ‘The Guardian’ that Mendes along with Peter Kenyon has conducted many of the biggest transfers in European football in the third party ownership of players in apparent breach of FIFA regulations. They represented the players by buying their rights through companies based in Jersey and Ireland.
When Wolverhampton Wanderers was taken over by Fosun conglomerate and appointed Nuno Espirito Santo as their new coach, Mendes was implemented as an agent for the club. In the summer of 2016 transfer window, 28 players were signed for € 40 million.
In late 2016, Mendes was accused of his involvement in tax avoidance scheme with both Mouriho and Ronaldo. He was called on June 27, 2017 to give evidence before Madrid court as a part of investigation looking into his company Gestifute affairs.
In January 2018, Swansea City have enlisted his service to boost Premier League survival mission assisting the new manager Carlos Carvalhal.
In July 2008, CAA Sports, a division of leading entertainment and sports agency and GestiFute, a leading sports management company, have formed a global partnership to represent the world’s premier soccer player and coaches.