Rafaela Pimenta, one of football’s most powerful agents, opens up on the sexism she still faces, the emotional toll of restrictive transfer rules, and why the Haaland deal was a “marriage,” not a negotiation. From boardroom battles to advocating for women in sport, she’s challenging the system from the inside — and she’s not holding back.
“If I want to send you a message that I love you, I marry you. I don’t date you. How can you express love bigger than marrying you?”
That’s how Rafaela Pimenta describes the record-breaking, nine-and-a-half-year contract she brokered for Erling Haaland at Manchester City. But beneath the poetic metaphor lies a sharp business acumen, honed over decades navigating the high-stakes, male-dominated world of football agency.
Pimenta, one of the sport’s most powerful figures, has spent over 35 years championing her clients, first alongside the late Mino Raiola, now at the helm of their One agency. Her work has included representing global names like Haaland and Arne Slot, while also building a growing client base in the women’s game. Yet, the path to influence has not been without resistance.
“I’m a football agent,” she told a doctor after injuring her wrist playing football. The response? “That’s not possible. But you’re a woman?” It wasn’t malicious, Pimenta insists, but it was deeply telling. “He was looking at me as if I had fallen from space.”
Now a non-executive director for Women In Football, Pimenta is determined to use her platform to shift perceptions, particularly around the intersection of gender and power in sport. “It means people still judge your worth by your gender,” she says. “In football, it matters and it shouldn’t.”
Pimenta is especially passionate about protecting and elevating women in the sport. “They are not soccer Barbies,” she stresses. “They are athletes. They have great bodies but that’s not the point and should not be the point.”
She recalls how sexism became starkly apparent when she moved from Brazil to Europe. “I never thought of myself as being inferior to men because that’s not how I was raised,” she says. “I actually felt the doors were being closed when I got to a place where I thought doors would normally be open.”
Within football institutions, she saw women doing critical work without credit. “They were the men’s support system in the decision-making positions but they would not wear the hat. The credit would go to the men.”
Her earliest role model in the game? Marina Granovskaia of Chelsea. “She could break this barrier of sexism that I felt in Europe,” Pimenta recalls.
But the discrimination Pimenta faced could be more than subtle. In one meeting, a football director told her in front of a player and his father, “You’re Brazilian, so we thought you were a hooker.” That memory still lingers.
Even now, she says, her gender is “very relevant” to clients. “People say: ‘Yeah, but she’s a woman. Are you sure she knows what she’s doing?’” Some players have been pressured to walk away from working with her for that reason alone.
Yet, she’s also seen the opposite. A father of a female player once insisted on a female agent because it reassured him. And inside clubs, women have quietly helped her navigate bureaucracy. “Somebody slips a phone number in my bag… This is girl power.”
Pimenta says the contrast between the men’s and women’s games is striking. “It is so hard to become a footballer when you’re a man. It is even harder to become a footballer when you’re a woman.” She cites the case of Luis Rubiales, who was found guilty of sexual assault for kissing Jenni Hermoso without consent. “Imagine if Messi just won the World Cup and Infantino kisses him on the mouth. That’s inconceivable.”
Pimenta is focused on building safer spaces. “I want to make them (female players) feel safe, that they can be what they want to be without the added risks of being a woman in this industry.”
Despite these challenges, she believes in the business potential of the women’s game. “If the fans are interested, the rest will follow,” she says. But sustainability must not come at the expense of fair pay. “The girls need to eat. Why can the two things not co-exist?”
She argues that football’s transfer system is fundamentally broken and calls for urgent reform. “Do you want slaves?” she asks, highlighting how difficult it’s become to negotiate a transfer simply because a player is unhappy. “Today they don’t. That’s not OK.”
One of her proudest moments remains the Haaland deal with City. The ambition was always a 10-year commitment. “If it means something, let’s put it on paper and celebrate. Let’s be loud about it.”
The contract was about sending a signal to stakeholders, sponsors, and fans. “It allows everything that comes with it to get organised. That lets us achieve bigger things.”
Still, the deal was struck while City faced over 100 charges from the Premier League, which they deny. When asked about it, Pimenta replied diplomatically: “That would be a conversation that enters my lawyer hat.”
Ultimately, Pimenta sees herself as a steward of the player’s passion. “If you stop being human, you lose the passion. You might as well use robots to play football.”
And while she believes the men’s game treats players more like assets than people, she’s not giving up. “If we all make women’s football a bigger sport we will be indirectly helping communities and cultural change.”
