Haaland’s will be the big name in the next summer market. The calls that his agent, Mino Raiola, is receiving from the main teams in Europe, even at this point in the season, are constant. Madrid tries to be well positioned in that fierce fight. As AS has learned from sources close to the player himself, the white entity continues to have the front door open. In the first place, these sources affirm to this newspaper, because in their final choice the economic aspect will not prevail. This gives Madrid many options which, for obvious budget balance reasons, cannot fight with state clubs like PSG (Qatar) or Manchester City (Abu Dhabi).
Haaland will value the sporting project much more. He wants his next transfer to give him stability to make a brilliant career, smooth and with options to win important titles and the Ballon d’Or. In this sense, a Real Madrid already almost rebuilt in which there will be newcomers like Camavinga, Alaba or Mbappé, is a guarantee. There is only a small but, he would have liked to be the headliner, and at Bernaéu he would have to share that status with Mbappé.
There are reports coming from England that speak of the possibility that Haaland already has it closed with an English club. Nothing is further from reality. The intention of the player is to leave everything open until May or June. Nor is it even ruled out that the option to continue one more year at Borussia is finally chosen, which is making real efforts to convince the player to stay until 2023 by raising his salary to 15 million euros net, for which it will count. with the help of Nike, which will be its new sponsor. Either way, they tell us, this is a pretty remote option.
For Haaland to continue one more year, until 2023, at Borussia, it would be ideal for Real Madrid. In the offices of the Bernabéu there is the belief that Benzema can perform at the highest level for at least a couple of more seasons. I would not need the Norwegian, therefore, until the good star of the French is exhausted.
“Staying is a risk and leaving too,” Mino Raiola told AS in an interview published before last summer. Despite his words, the agent was determined to remove the Dortmund player, aware that he had a great deal on his hands. But the German team flatly refused, even when PSG knocked on their door, in the last days of the market, after Madrid presented their second offer for Mbappé.
PSG appears, indeed, as the biggest obstacle that Madrid will have if it finally launches for Haaland. The entity owned by the state of Qatar will throw all the meat on the grill to take the Norwegian when it is confirmed that Mbappé goes to Real Madrid. His relations with Raiola are also excellent at the moment, since the agent has Donnarumma at zero cost and has Verratti, one of the heavyweights of the squad, inside him. Manchester City will be the other great rival. He already tried to sign Harry Kane last summer. It remains to be seen if Guardiola’s team insists on English or points to Haaland.
There are other major rivals for Haaland who seem to be falling off the bill. One of them is Manchester United. If Solsjkaer continues as a coach, it will be very difficult for Raiola to lean towards that option, there are so many problems between the Norwegian coach and one of the agent’s fetish players, Paul Pogba, who by the way ends his contract in June and it seems that he will have to pack to get away from Old Trafford. Bayern is not seen as an option either. The 25 million net that Haaland wants to collect breaks, by far, the salary scale of the Bavarian club, always so applied in balancing balances.
Having the Norwegian striker in the squad represents an investment that will be around 400 million euros in five years, the time that the first contract signed by the Norwegian will last. Borussia’s own sources indicate to AS that there is no written clause that sets Haaland’s price for the summer of 2022, as has been published, at 75 million euros. If there is, instead, a verbal pact between Mino Raiola and Hans-Joaquim Watzke, Borusser CEO, to facilitate that exit. This means listening to offers and setting a price slightly lower than the market dictates, which can be between 100 and 150 million. To this must be added the footballer’s salary in the first five years of his contract, 50 million gross (25 net) per campaign, up to a total of 250 million euros.
“If Madrid can afford Haaland”, Raiola reflected in AS a few months ago. “Allowing themselves I do not know, because I did not study their finances. But I think so. I think everyone can afford it. Although the question is another: can Madrid afford not to buy Haaland?” The Norwegian door is still open for Madrid …