Erling Haaland tipped to leave Man City for way less than expected price; club he’d sign for ‘tomorrow’ identified
Real Madrid remain linked with Erling Haaland
Manchester City might not have as much power to prevent Erling Haaland from moving abroad as initially thought, a report has explained.
When Man City signed Haaland from Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2022, they were hoping it meant they were getting one of the most reliable goalscorers on the planet. That much has turned out to be true, since the Norwegian superstar scored more than 50 goals in his debut season on course to winning the treble.
But naturally, when you have a player of that pedigree, other elite clubs will always be keeping an eye on even the tiniest hints that he could become available for a move.
Haaland is believed to have release clauses in his Man City contract, which has led to persistent links with a future move to Real Madrid.
After all, he is still only 23 years old, so has plenty of time to progress his career even further.
Most of the transfer news about Real Madrid in recent days has related to their pursuit of Paris Saint-Germain star Kylian Mbappe on a free transfer.
The idea of Mbappe agreeing a pre-contract move to Madrid has been discredited, though, which has led to a revival of rumours about Haaland.
According to AS, Los Blancos ‘will turn towards’ Haaland if the Mbappe track goes cold. And Man City might need to watch out, since that could well be this summer.
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The asking price for Haaland has long been assumed to be in the region of €200m (£171.9m). But AS claims that is only the case for rival Premier League clubs.
If a European suitor tries to lure Haaland away, the report claims Man City’s demands would be closer to €100m than €200m.
Obviously, that doesn’t mean the asking price is the €100m (£85.9m) figure itself, which would seem on the low side for Haaland wherever he ended up.
But the conditions could be more favourable for Real Madrid than they have been expecting. The idea of the value being closer to €100m indicates it would be no higher than €150m (£128.9m).
Erling Haaland open to Real Madrid future
What’s more, Haaland is aware of the interest in him becoming a Galactico signing and ‘would sign for Madrid tomorrow’ if the decision was his, the report states. And if Madrid do activate a release clause to sign him, the decision will indeed be Haaland’s.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side lost Karim Benzema over the summer when the 2022 Ballon d’Or winner went to Al-Ittihad in the Saudi Pro League.
They have since adjusted their system to rely less on having a natural centre-forward, but adding one like Haaland back into the mix would make them even more powerful.
In his second season with Man City, Haaland has so far scored 19 goals from 22 appearances, meaning his overall record for the club is 71 goals from 75 games.
Pep Guardiola’s side shouldn’t be panicking just yet about losing Haaland, who has terms valid until 2027 at the Etihad Stadium.
But they will simply have to keep looking over their shoulders while they try to assert their own control of Haaland’s situation, ideally by updating his contract.
