Revealed: Why Real Madrid missed out on Haaland transfer

Robin Bairner

• 9 May 2022 18:41 BST
• 3 min read

Erling Haaland is set to complete his transfer from Borussia Dortmund to Manchester City in the coming days, with Real Madrid set to be one of the parties left disappointed they could not get a deal over the line.

Haaland has been a hot topic of football transfer news for months, with his prolific form for Dortmund prompting interest from all of Europe’s top clubs.

It is almost unanimously reported that the forward has agreed terms with City, and FootMercato even goes further to state that he has had his medical in Belgium on Monday.

For a long period, though, it seemed that Real Madrid had genuine hopes of signing the striker.

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CadenaSER has reported why Los Blancos have missed out on the forward – and it has nothing to do with either wage issues or a problem meeting his €75 million release clause. Instead, it is to do with the finer details of the deal.

According to the report, Mino Raiola, the late agent of the 21-year-old wanted a clause in the deal that would have allowed his contract to be bought out for €150m, which could have been triggered in the second year of the player’s contract. It would have left Madrid in danger of losing the striker for under market value – much like Dortmund will do this summer.

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez took a strong line on this proposal, rejecting it out of hand.

The Spanish source states that the president’s decision was the beginning of the end for the negotiations.

For Real Madrid, though, it would have made little sense to have agreed to these terms. Having such a clause in Haaland’s contract would have loaded everything in his favour. For example, if he were to flop at the Bernabeu, he would have a huge contract to fall back on, but if he were to succeed, Madrid would be under threat of losing him for a fee outside of their control at a time they could not choose.

It is telling that they have put massive release fees on many other more modest players. Eder Militao, release clause, for example, is €1 billion.

Haaland’s Real Madrid move was always likely to be difficult to negotiate for this reason, with Manchester City more than happy to jump in and take advantage.