Who is Jorge Mendes? The superagent with a €1.44 billion football empire

12 Apr 2024 12:00 BST
6 min read

Jose Mourinho, Jorge Mendes, 2024 — © IMAGO

Jorge Mendes is arguably the most famous football agent around today.

He founded his agency, Gestifute, in 1996 after working as a DJ. Now he has some of the best-known footballers as his clientele.

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His first big move came by the way of Nuno Espírito Santo, with the agent brokering a $1 million transfer to La Liga's Deportivo La Coruna from Vitoria Guimaraes in 1996.

And it’s just been an unprecedented trajectory since then.

But just how is Mendes and what do we know about him?

What is Jorge Mendes’ agency?

Mendes agency is Gestifute, one of the largest in the world. The collective market value of Gestifute is a €1.44 billion at the time of writing.

What players does Jorge Mendes represent?

Mendes represents some of the world’s greatest talent, Cristiano Ronaldo being the biggest, but others include Ruben Dias, Bernando Silva, Darwin Nunez, Manuel Ugarte, Pedro Neto, Diogo Jota, Antonio Silva, and Joao Neves.

How good is Jorge Mendes?

Mendes has made it to the big time and has been in the highest echelons of agency work for the past two decades. In 2004, Mendes also played a major part in Chelsea's appointment of Porto head coach Jose Mourinho, though he was not his actual agent at the time.

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Mendes' influence at Chelsea grew as he was involved in a number of transfers of Portuguese players to Stamford Bridge. The likes of Ricardo Carvalho, Paulo Ferreira, Tiago and Maniche were brought into the club as Mendes got his claws into one of the biggest emerging Premier League clubs at the time.

But Mendes’ pinnacle was in 2003, helping facilitate Ronaldo's move to Manchester United from Sporting Lisbon. As his agent, Mendes managed Ronaldo's legendary career through his moves to Real Madrid in 2009, Juventus in 2018, his return to Man Utd in 2021, as well as his move to Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League.

Mendes has been named Best Agent of the Year at the Globe Soccer Awards ten times.

© IMAGO - Darwin Nunez is a client of Jorge Mendes

Most large moves from Portugal’s Primeira Liga to the Premier League and La Liga and the like are brokered through Gestifute, even if they are not the official agents. Everyone in Portugal knows that Mendes has the power to bring some of the most important names at clubs to the table for negotiations.

Outside of football, he represents other talent from across the world of sports, Formula 1 star Charles Leclerc, triple jump champion Patricia Mamona, surfer Frederico Morais, and cyclist João Almeida.