Jorge Mendes — agent to the stars

Two decades ago, he was a budding entrepreneur making a living from managing a video club and discotheques. Today, at the age of 51, Jorge Mendes operates in a hyper-moneyed world inhabited by top sportsmen as agent to the stars — including Cristiano Ronaldo. But all is no longer well among the gilded megastars advised by the man who has been elected “best agent of the year” several times at the Globe Soccer Awards. Mendes appeared in court near Madrid yesterday for questioning over striker Radamel Falcao’s alleged tax evasion, just one of his clients to fall foul of Spain’s judiciary.Monaco’s Falcao is suspected of failing to correctly declare 5.6mn euros ($6.3mn) of income earned from image rights between 2012 and 2013 while at Atletico Madrid. The Colombian is accused of using a web of shell companies in the British Virgin Islands, Ireland, Colombia and Panama to avoid taxes.Ronaldo, the world’s highest paid athlete according to Forbes, is due to be questioned on July 31 after allegedly evading 14.7mn euros in taxes. Fabio Coentrao, the Portugal international who also plays for Real Madrid, is suspected of having hidden close to 1.3mn euros.And Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho, another Mendes client, has been accused of failing to pay millions in taxes during his time in charge of Real Madrid. Nicknamed “the shark” by rival agents, the diminutive Mendes has a penchant for being discreet — he keeps his head down and rarely gives interviews. When he does surface he is generally seen phone in hand or clamped to his ear wheeling and dealing for his stable of some 100 players or coaches whose interests he manages.  Yet Mendes has been front page news since an international consortium of media organisations highlighted a huge data leak purporting to show that Ronaldo, Mourinho and others kept millions of earnings out of the taxman’s reach in havens. Mendes, whose company, Gestifute International, is registered in Ireland, has vigorously denied any wrongdoing. He was one of the first to exploit player rights through third parties such as investment funds — a practice FIFA has now made illegal.Mendes Quality Sports Investments, based in the tax haven of Jersey, offered rich investors the chance to buy a percentage of players’ “economic rights” with a view to making a killing when they were eventually sold on for a hefty transfer fee in jurisdictions operating ultra-low corporation tax. Such a practice has long been common notably in South America although the English Premier League and also UEFA leagues have officially condemned it. Mendes appears to be an archetypal ‘self-made man.’ Born to an oil industry worker in Lisbon he left the Portuguese capital aged 19 to enter the business world in the northern provincial town of Viana do Castelo.A video club which he opened became a successful venture and soon he would meet Portugal keeper Nuno Espirito Santo in a disco he was also running. A former semi-professional footballer himself, Mendes set about cultivating close links to players, creating his own network and starting to look after their interests.“He works hard with players and looks after them constantly,” Real Madrid president Florentino Perez once said of Mendes in allusion to his dealing with Ronaldo’s 94mn euro move from Manchester United.“I have every confidence in him. He is like a big brother for me a father figure in the world of football and godfather to my son,” said Ronaldo in a 2012 documentary which coincided with 15 years of Mendes’ agency work. “Jorge Mendes is for me a great friend, more than an agent,” Mourinho said of their relationship. “Our careers started at the same time and happily things have gone well for both of us,” said the man now in the Old Trafford dugout who after leading Porto to the 2004 Champions League took several Portuguese stars with him to Chelsea.Mendes’ links with Falcao’s Monaco goes back to his working on the transfer to the French top flight club of Portuguese international Costinha in 1997. Asked about his style of doing business Mendes once said: “I am not one of these agents who races after players making promises....” adding that he represents players interests and intervenes to protect them when clubs would prefer to do deals behind their backs. “Sometimes their (transfer) situation is almost sealed and they themselves know nothing of it.”Mendes charged, denies creating shell companiesMadrid: Football super-agent Jorge Mendes yesterday denied he created shell companies for his clients during questioning by a Spanish court investigating alleged tax evasion by striker Radamel Falcao, his company Gestifute said in a statement.Mendes was charged with tax offences over his possible role in Falcao’s alleged tax evasion during his appearance at a court in Pozuelo de Alarcon, an upmarket suburb of Madrid where many football stars live, a judicial source said.As Spanish authorities tighten the net around footballers such as Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, another Mendes client suspected of fiscal fraud, their advisers and agents are coming under scrutiny too. Monaco’s Falcao is suspected of failing to correctly declare 5.6mn euros of income earned from image rights between 2012 and 2013 while he was at Atletico Madrid. The Colombian is accused of using a web of shell companies in the British Virgin Islands, Ireland, Colombia and Panama to avoid taxes on the image rights income.Mendes arrived at a court wearing a dark suit and black tie. The 51-year-old made no comments as he went into court, where he will be questioned over his possible role in Falcao’s alleged tax evasion.He will see the judge just after Falcao’s Argentine wife Lorelei Dahiana Taron, who is merely appearing as a witness, a judicial source said. Mendes risks being put under official investigation in the case, but his company Gestifute has already denied any wrongdoing. “Neither Jorge Mendes nor the company he manages, Gestifute, participate in or offer any service linked, directly or indirectly, to financial, fiscal or legal advice to their clients,” it said earlier this month.