Jorge Paulo Agostinho Mendes is a Portuguese football agent. He is registered with the football association of Portugal[1] and heads the GestiFute company, founded in 1996.[2] Mendes is among the most influential football agents in the world, with clients including Luiz Felipe Scolari, José Mourinho, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ricardo Carvalho, Nani, Quaresma and Falcao.
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Mendes began as a footballer but was forced to abandon his hopes of a professional career after being rejected by a number of Portuguese clubs when he was in his early 20s.[3] After the end of his football career, he opened a number of bars and nightclubs, and ran a video rental store.[3]
Mendes' first deal as a football agent came in 1996 when he brokered Nuno's move from Vitória de Guimarães to Deportivo de La Coruña. He had met the goalkeeper in a bar in Guimarães.[3] After that deal, Mendes gradually attracted more Portuguese players, including Jorge Andrade. Hugo Viana's move from Sporting Clube de Portugal to Newcastle United in the English Premier League for around €12 million in 2002 was his first major international transfer.[3][4]
It has been reported that Mendes came to physical blows at the Portela Airport in Lisbon with José Veiga, the agent of Luís Figo, whose influence Mendes was gradually supplanting at this time.[5]
In 2004, Mendes brokered José Mourinho's move from FC Porto to manage Chelsea, despite Mourinho already having an agent, José Baidek, whom Mourinho had known since his time at União de Leiria and who had reportedly lined up a move to Liverpool.[6] Mourinho and Mendes negotiated with the agent Pini Zahavi, who acted as Chelsea's representative.[7]
The deal established Mendes' importance. He built up a roster of the leading Portuguese players and every Portuguese player that followed Mourinho to Chelsea was a client of Mendes, including Deco, Ricardo Carvalho, Paulo Ferreira, Tiago, and Maniche.[6] GestiFute was also involved in part-owning the economic rights of a number of these players. In July 2003, FC Porto bought 20% of Deco's rights from GestiFute in exchange for €2.25 million, plus 5% of the economic rights for Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira. Shortly afterwards, GestiFute sold a further 15% of Deco's economic rights to the club, this time in return for €1.25 million and 10% of the striker Benni McCarthy.[8]
At the 2008 European Championships, Mendes was allowed privileged access to the Portuguese team hotel by the then-manager Luiz Felipe Scolari.[6] In the same year, Mendes handled the deal that took Scolari to Chelsea, negotiating a three-year contract worth between £5.5 million and £6.25 million.[6]
He also oversaw Mourinho's move to Internazionale in 2008, for a fee that made him the highest paid coach in the world,[3] and then, in May 2010, that which saw him move from Internazionale to become Real Madrid's manager on a four-year contract worth £40 million.[9][10]
Mendes oversaw the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo from Sporting Clube de Portugal to Manchester United for £12.24 million in 2003 and in 2007 those of Anderson and Nani to the same club for £46 million. The Nani transfer followed only once the player had dropped his existing agent, Ana Almeida.[6] That summer, he was also responsible for the transfers of Pepe to Real Madrid for £25 million and Simão to Atlético Madrid for £16.5 million.[6]
Mendes' association with Anderson reflected the connections he established in South America, in which he worked closely with Zahavi.[3] Part of the deal that took Anderson to Manchester United saw his previous club FC Porto pay Mendes a reported £4 million for his share of Anderson's registration. Mendes was said to have contributed 20% of the £3.75 million Porto paid Grêmio in Brazil to sign the midfielder in 2006.[11]
Part of Mendes' approach was to be a constant presence at soccer schools and youth teams throughout Portugal, spotting and signing up young players, as he did with Cristiano Ronaldo. The same approach also led to his representing Ricardo Quaresma.[6]
In 2009, Mendes was reported to have made £4 million from Ronaldo's £80 million transfer from Manchester United to Real Madrid.[3]
In August 2010, the football agent Gonçalo Reis complained that he had been left on the sidelines when Bébé, a player he represented, was transferred to Manchester United from Vitória de Guimarães. "When [Jorge] Mendes arrived," he said, "I was out of the transaction." Reis had arranged Bébé's move to Vitória from Estrela da Amadora in the Portuguese third division in July 2010 after the cancellation of his contract due to the club's inability to pay the player's wages. Manchester United signed Bébé for a reported fee of £7.4 million five weeks later.[12] United's manager, Alex Ferguson, admitted that he had not seen Bébé play.[13]
Gestifute apparently received 30 percent of the transfer fee for their part ownership of the player's economic rights.[14] Vitória's directors reported that Mendes had received €3.6 million of the €9 million fee from the deal, with reports in Portugal suggesting that €2.7 million of that sum came from the 30 percent of the player's economic rights initially retained by Bébé but bought from the player by Mendes for €100,000.[15]
Emilio Macedo, the President of the Guimarães club, called Mendes, "The bulwark of this transfer" and defended the agent, saying, "With all due respect to other agents, this country owes him a lot because he handles large transfers and brings money into the country because this is like an export."[12]
Bébé had reportedly been recommended to Manchester United by Carlos Queiroz, who had two spells as assistant manager at the club, and managed the Portuguese national side. His relationship with United had been important in the transfers of Anderson and Nani in 2007.
In 2008, GestiFute announced that it had entered into partnership with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in the United States to "create global opportunities for current and future clients" as part of the CAA's expansion into the sports market.[16]