Why Man Utd’s Haaland hope renewed after Raiola’s Madrid and Barca comments

Robin Bairner

• 11 Dec 2021 15:46 GMT
• 3 min read

Erling Haaland’s future has been clarified by agent Mino Raiola after he suggested that the Borussia Dortmund striker could leave for Manchester City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Barcelona in an interview published on Friday.

Speculation has raged over the future of the Norway international forward for months, which comes as little surprise given that he has scored at the rate of more than a goal per game since moving to BVB in January 2020.

With Haaland boasting a release clause in his Dortmund contract that will allow him to depart for a relatively cut-price fee in the summer – variously reported to be worth between €80-€100m – questions over his future are only building.

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Raiola’s interview on Friday only fuelled the fire, though he has since moved to calm suggestions the striker will move to one of the aforementioned four clubs, notably omitting Manchester United as a possible destination.

Indeed, the agent seemed to take a barb at the Old Trafford club by highlighting City’s greater achievements in recent years.

In a statement pushed out by the agent on Twitter, he said: “I want to clarify the following about the Sport1 interview: the four clubs I mentioned about Haaland’s future were just an example to say that, when he leaves, he will go to one of the top 15 European clubs.

“Now Erling’s focus is solely on football, there are no negotiations with any club.

“And I reaffirm what I said – it’s not a sure thing that he will leave this summer, maybe it will be the one after that.”

A shrewd and experienced operator, the agent will still have his critics who believe that there remains weight to what he said in the original interview, although a year ago he suggested very publicly that Paul Pogba’s Manchester United career was over and yet the France star remains at Old Trafford.

Raiola has, nevertheless, only served to hype the possibility of Haaland departing Dortmund in the summer further – although that is unlikely to do his client any harm.