In less than 18 months, Real Madrid will try to sign Erling Haaland, aiming to convince the Manchester City forward to leave.
If City hadn’t swooped in so quickly to meet his Borussia Dortmund release clause, Haaland would have been one of the hottest commodities in world football last summer.
With the Norwegian scoring 18 goals in just 13 Premier League games, it has undoubtedly proven to be fantastic business for about £52 million.
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Though Thomas Frank of Brentford has now detailed how his team was able to do it, very few teams have been able to figure out how to stop him.
Real Madrid was one team with interest in the 22-year-old, but they were more focused on getting Kylian Mbappe in the summer.
The Frenchman decided to stay with PSG, and by the time they could have moved for Haaland, it was already too late. This caused the deal to fall through, which made those of us who are still upset with Florentino Perez over the European Super League situation laugh.
The Spanish powerhouses, though, are apparently looking to make a move in 2024 and are not giving up on the potential to sign him in the future.
The hardest aspect of trying to sign Haaland, according to AS, will be trying to convince him to leave the Etihad Stadium.
The former Red Bull Salzburg player may have a €180 million release clause, and the 14-time European winners are counting on that to sign him.
Release clauses in his contracts, which were purportedly required by his then-agent Mino Raiola, caused him to leave both Salzburg and Dortmund.
After the superagent passed away earlier this year, Rafaela Pimenta took over the former Molde striker’s representation.
Since then, Pimenta has asserted that her client might become the first €1 billion player in the history of the sport, which is a significant assertion given that there has only ever been one €200 million player.
She has been vague about whether the contract actually contains a release clause, despite Pep Guardiola’s prior denials to the contrary.
The condition, however, reportedly only applies to teams outside the Premier League and kicks in at the conclusion of the 2023–24 season.
If so, Real would just need to focus on convincing the player to leave Manchester as long as they have the money to pay for it.
Real expects the transfer to take place as Benzema’s tenure at the Bernabeu is coming to an end because his Ballon d’Or winner contract expires in 2024, when he will be 36 years old.
Mbappe’s own future is still up in the air due to rumours that, despite signing a new contract in the summer, he is already dissatisfied at PSG.
He has been mentioned in connection with Manchester United as a potential Cristiano Ronaldo replacement, although it doesn’t seem very realistic.