Marc Madio angrily refuted new information that soccer "super-agent" Jorge Mendes is moving into the world of professional cycling.

Appearing on French radio station RMC (open in new tab), the Groupama-FDJ manager delivered a typically impassioned speech, saying that it would be "catastrophic" if Mendes and others tried to bring a soccer-style transfer market to cycling.

Last week it was announced that Mendes' Polaris Sports Agency, which represents star soccer players like Cristiano Ronaldo, has teamed up with João Correia's Corso Sports Agency. Portuguese riders João Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Rubén Guerreiro (EF Education-Nippo) will have their commercial interests managed by Polaris.

"If Mendes is Almeida's agent, Almeida will never come to my team," Madio said at RMC.

When it was pointed out that Giro d'Italia champion Tao Geoghegan Hart and former world champion Mads Pedersen are with partner agency Corso, he replied: "Then they wouldn't come here either."

Madio claimed that soccer agents like Mendes earn cash by brokering deals in a transfer market that has swelled significantly in recent years.

"We don't need a soccer system. The soccer agent's system, that's what it is,' it's to have a portfolio of players and to make them transfer as often as possible, to go to the bank as often as possible."

"They are gambling in an expanding financial bubble. With that financial bubble and all that is currently happening in COVID, where is soccer now? They are staring into the abyss. And we want people like Mendes to join cycling' I don't want Mendes to join cycling. He should be in Portugal with the soccer players."

The transfer market in cycling operates in a different way than in soccer, where players are typically traded for millions of dollars in transfer fees over the course of their contracts. While the "Bosman ruling" allows players to expire their contracts and move on without having to pay a transfer fee,

long-term contracts are typically negotiated so that clubs can demand a transfer fee if a player wishes to leave.

In cycling, despite rare discrepancies, athletes are given short-term contracts and are not considered "on the market" until their contract ends.

"Of course, there are already agents in cycling, but there is a very important factor in cycling: the agent must be able to provide the athlete with the necessary information to be able to compete in the sport.

"In other words, if a rider signs a two-year contract with me, he will have two full years. At the end of it, he is free, and so am I. If I have 10 euros, I spend 10 euros.

Polaris Sports currently only represents two Portuguese riders, but Madio warns of the danger of Mendes and others expanding their influence.

"There is one thing he has to learn, but I think he already knows ...... He is not going to make as much money from cycling as he does from soccer. Maybe he has other ideas in the background and they are not good ones. I think these people want to take over the general system of cycling at a certain moment.