Why Haaland’s agent means Man Utd and Real Madrid lead Chelsea in transfer race

Martin Macdonald

• Updated: 19 May 2021 19:39 BST
• 3 min read

Erling Haaland is the hottest property in world football at the moment, with several elite sides including Manchester United, Manchester City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Chelsea reportedly planning a summer transfer for the Borussia Dortmund striker.

However, the Blues may find themselves towards the back of the queue to land his signature due to the fact his agent his Mino Raiola.

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The controversial football agent is in charge of a few of the top stars in the world including Haaland, Romelu Lukaku, Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

It was during negotiations for a transfer of Lukaku that Raiola developed a fractured relationship with Chelsea and owner Roman Abramovich.

With Lukaku being a former Chelsea player, they were of the opinion that they were in pole position to sign the Belgian striker from Everton in the summer of 2017, only for Man Utd to swoop in and sign him from under their noses.

The Stamford Bridge side blamed Raiola for the failed Lukaku deal, and vowed never to do business with him again.

Chelsea’s change of heart for Haaland

However, the Daily Star reports that Abramovich is so desperate to land Haaland that he is willing to put his feelings about Raiola to one side in order to complete a deal for the maverick Norwegian.

This season, Chelsea parted ways with Frank Lampard and brought in former Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain boss Thomas Tuchel, who has overseen an unbeaten run which has put them back into contention for the Champions League qualifying positions.

However, there is a general feeling that, despite the club spending in excess of £220 million (€256m) in the summer, they are still lacking a world-class number nine who will score 20+ goals in the Premier League and beyond in a season.

Haaland has been supreme form this season, scoring 31 goals in all competitions for Dortmund and 19 in the Bundesliga.

That is just one less than the combined tally of Chelsea’s recognised centre-forwards, with Olivier Giroud, Timo Werner, and Tammy Abraham who have scored 32 goals between them.

Goalscoring as a whole has been an issue, particularly since Tuchel’s arrival, so the acquisition of the world’s most in-form striker would certainly go a long way to fixing that problem.

Chelsea of course face stiff competition for Haaland, with the player himself potential dropping a hint about a secret adoration for Real Madrid recently on Instagram.

The Bayern links are obvious, while Barcelona will unlikely be able to afford him this summer.

Both Man Utd and Man City, meanwhile, will be in the market for a starting number nine.