Barcelona are aware that Borussia Dortmund have ‘no intention’ of selling Erling Haaland this summer but could convince them like they did with Ousmane Dembélé in the past.
That’s according to MARCA, who explain that it will take a monstrous offer to get the striker out of Germany.
This is something Dortmund’s directors have made clear with repeated comments over the last few weeks, and even Mino Raiola, Haaland’s agent, has ‘acknowledged’ it as fact.
This is not the first time the general manager at Dortmund, has used this ‘tactic’, though.
The last time this happened was with Dembélé and Barcelona. In that deal, they ‘remained inflexible’ despite days and days of phone calls.
That was until Barcelona called again with an offer of €145m, a figure that ‘exceeded all expectations’ and led the Frenchman to the Nou Camp.
That is what will be needed with Haaland, and a figure of €180m has been touted as the one that ‘could change everything’.
Real Madrid are not prepared to reach such an amount under any circumstances, and so the door is open for Barcelona to make their move and repeat the Dembélé operation of the past.
Whether they can afford to is seriously in doubt, of course, but it seems the battle lines for Haaland are already being drawn ahead of a fierce tussle for his signature this summer.
