'Madrid or renewal' - Why Haaland's future depends on Mbappe deal

Martin Macdonald

• 8 Feb 2024 15:07 GMT
• 4 min read

The future of Erling Haaland is tied intimately to Kylian Mbappe’s impending free transfer to Real Madrid.

The France captain is widely expected to announce in the coming days that he is leaving Paris Saint-Germain once his contract expires at the end of the season.

Mbappe has been at PSG since 2017 and came close to moving to Santiago Bernabeu back in 2022 but changed his mind at the last moment and committed to PSG with a contract renewal instead.

At the time it was assumed that Mbappe signed a three-year contract extension, until 2025, but it later transpired that it was only valid until 2024 with the player holding the right to extend it for a further year.

Madrid can't afford Mbappe and Haaland

He rejected the opportunity to do that last summer, enraging his club, and was temporarily banished to PSG’s “bomb squad” alongside players scheduled to be sold.

Luis Enrique, the PSG manager, reintegrated Mbappe early in the season and he has gone on to score 30 goals in 29 matches in all competitions with the Parisians top of Ligue 1 on the back of his efforts.

However, it was reported by Le Parisien last week that PSG now privately admit that the battle is over and they are resigned to losing Mbappe to Real Madrid at the end of the season for no fee.

The finances involved are going to be stratospheric, with Cadena SER suggesting that Mbappe wants a €50 million salary, a €120m signing on fee and a 60/40 split with the club for his image rights.

While Madrid possess the financial muscle to furnish that kind of deal, doing so while signing Haaland from Manchester City and staying within LaLiga and FFP guidelines is not going to be possible.

Accordingly, it would now appear that Haaland is content to bide his time and not rush into any decisions over his future until the Mbappe deal is settled.

Diario AS reports that the Norwegian’s options are “Madrid or renewal” with treble-winning City keen to tie their star down to a new contract.

Haaland’s current terms expire in 2027 and there is a clause in his deal allowing clubs outside the Premier League to sign him for a fee of between €100m and €150m this year.

A tantalisingly low buyout of €60m allowed City to pull off one of the transfer coups of the century in 2022 when they signed Haaland from Borussia Dortmund.

He went on to fire in 52 goals as City claimed the Champions League, the Premier League and the FA Cup among other honours last year.

Pep Guardiola stated last week that the Citizens wanted Haaland to stay at the club for a decade and the player is both settled and happy at the Etihad having been in Manchester for less than two seasons thus far.

Haaland has only just returned to the City side having spent two months out with a foot injury.