Haaland's 'future is abroad', says former Bayern chief Rummenigge

Martin Macdonald

• 2 Sept 2021 13:17 BST
• 5 min read

Former Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge does not believe the club will be able to sign Erling Haaland, saying the Norwegian's future lies away from the Bundesliga.

Haaland has emerged as one of the most devastating forwards in world football over the past 18 months.

Since moving to Dortmund in January of 2019, he has started 62 games for the German side and scored an incredible 63 goals, while last season he broke the record for the shortest amount of time to reach 20 Champions League goals, beating the record previously held by Kylian Mbappe.

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He is wanted by every elite club in Europe, with Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain all linked with him at one time or another.

Dortmund would be particularly keen to avoid selling him to Bayern, as they have lost a number of key players to their rivals over the years like Robert Lewandowski, Mario Gotze and Mats Hummels.

However, Rummenigge believes BVB can relax as Haaland will likely move abroad.

“He has become an absolute figure in the league," the Bayern legend told Sport Bild.

"But I'm afraid he won't stay in the Bundesliga. Circulating numbers show that it is difficult to retain him in Germany. I suppose his future is abroad."

The "numbers" Rummenigge is referring to is Haaland's alleged €50 million requested wages, as confirmed recently by reports in Germany.

Is Haaland worth the money?

Haaland apparently has a release clause of around €70m which can be triggered next summer.

But he was still linked with the likes of Chelsea in the recently closed transfer window, with a fee of €175m being mentioned.

The player himself claimed he is not worth that, but according to the man who signed the Norwegian for RB Salzburg, Christopher Vivell, he is.

Vivell, formerly RB Salzburg's technical director, now at RB Leipzig, disagrees with Haaland's assessment of himself.

Speaking to Sport Bild, he said:

“If you can secure him now and pay that much for him, you're not making a mistake because he's still so young.”

Vivell believes that the Dortmund superstar will ultimately be worth the money because he has age on his side, and reckons he could go on to dominate the sport like Cristiano Ronaldo.

“On top of that, you have him under contract for five years and Erling is already guaranteed something then," he continued.

“If he stays injury-free, he can dominate the next ten or twelve years like Cristiano Ronaldo."