Haaland is going to Manchester City. As reported by The Athletics and confirmed by AS, the 21-year-old Norwegian striker has reached a definitive agreement with Guardiola’s team, where he will play from next season if nothing goes wrong, as the signing is still missing. The player, through the lawyer of the late Mino Raiola, Rafaela Pimenta, has deposited in the Borussia offices the clause of 75 million that allows her to leave. As they point out from England, the operation will become official this week or the next.
Already in the afternoon of yesterday more details of this last minute movement were known. Haaland went to pass the medical examination in Brussels, at the Erasmus Clinic, to try to go unnoticed. A flight to Manchester would have raised too many suspicions. Borussia Dortmund confirmed through a spokesman that the Norwegian striker has been granted a few days off to “resolve personal matters”.
Haaland has rushed his option to play for Real Madrid until the last moment. Only after realizing that Mbappé’s fate is very close to Madrid has he taken the step of accepting Manchester City’s offer in which he will charge, according to The Athletic itself, 30 million euros net per season.
Real Madrid has always been clear with the Norwegian player and his representatives. ANDn the perfect timing for the white entity, he needed Haaland to play one more year at Borussia and sign him later. Dortmund agreed with that strategy. But the player did not want to last another season in the Bundesliga.
Cláusula release.
In addition to not wanting to make him coincide in time with Benzema (the Frenchman is clearly aiming for the Ballon d’Or and is at his best), Real Madrid had cooled its relationship with Haaland’s entourage, as they were asking for very high commissions to take him to the Bernabéu (around 75 million, to which another 75 had to be added that had to be paid to Dortmund). But in addition, and as Cadena SER reported yesterday exclusively, what definitely pushed Madrid back is the release clause that Haaland wanted to include in his new contract, according to which he intended to set a price of 150 million euros to be able to leave after two years of contract, in an attempt to watch his back if things did not go well.
With everything and according to this newspaper, the Norwegian made it very clear to Real Madrid that he was willing to wear white if the entity launched for him. And he has been waiting until the last moment, until it was not possible to do it anymore. With Mino Raiola already sick, it was the agent’s lawyer, Rafaela Pimenta, who had the last talks with Madrid. Haaland has actually kept more doors open until the end. Xavi Hernandez has also confirmed that he met several times with the player in Munich. In any case, Madrid knows it well, the Norwegian has always pondered his intention to wear white. But it could not be. And when he was certain that Mbappé was going to Madrid, his last option, he took the step to go to City.