Erling Haaland: The clubs that can trigger his release clause
FT Desk
- 13 Oct 2022 09:08 BST
- 3 min read
Erling Haaland has a €200 million release clause in his Manchester City contract which activates in 2024, but not every club can make a bid for the Norwegian goal machine.
Haaland has hit the ground running since joining Man City from Borussia Dortmund in a €60m move this summer, scoring 20 goals from just 13 games in all competitions at a barely fathomable rate of one every 52 minutes he has played.
Pep Guardiola is renowned as being a coach who can micromanage his players - Leroy Sane once said he had "a little man in my ear with his voice that told me what to do when and how" - but the Catalan tactician has admitted he has had very little to do with Haaland's blistering start.
Three games, three goals. Erling Haaland makes the Premier League look easy.pic.twitter.com/BJTkUPOJQP
— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) August 22, 2022
"Why does the ball go to where he is?" he asked after the striker scored two against FC Copenhagen last week. "This is an incredible instinct. What can I teach him about being here or there?
"He has an incredible sense of strikers, that they just know where the ball is going to finish. If he goes one second before the right time, the ball won't be there. But well, he has this incredible talent."
No Premier League teams
That talent is of interest to almost every club in world football, but Haaland's €200m release clause, which activates in two seasons' time, is only eligible for teams outside of the Premier League.
Manchester United, Chelsea and the newly rich Newcastle are among the clubs ruled out of the running for Haaland in the medium-term, then, meaning Real Madrid are firmly in pole position to be Haaland's next destination should he decide to leave.
Paris Saint-Germain are perhaps the only other team outside of England who could afford Haaland's release clause, but the attraction of playing in la Liga for Europe's most successful team given Real a significant advantage over the French champions.
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Haaland's father and agent Alfie - a former Man City midfielder- previously admitted that Real were on their radar.
"On our list, I think Manchester City is the best team," he said in 'Haaland - The Big Decision', a documentary which was recorded before Haaland left Dortmund. "Bayern Munich is number two. We have Real Madrid as number three, Paris Saint-Germain as number four…"
Bayern won't go to €200m while Real were lower ranked due to the presence of Karim Benzema who is 35 in December. Haaland already plays for No.1. Watch this space.
