It doesn’t matter who you are or how little you pay attention to football, you will have heard the name Erling Haaland.
After all, the Borussia Dortmund striker is hard to miss, scoring for fun and catching the eye with his performances, and everyone has taken notice.
Manchester United have been linked for God knows how long, and now it’s their noisy neighbours’ turn, Manchester City, courtesy of SportBild journalist Christian Falk.
There has been much talk about a potential release clause in Haaland’s contract that would make him affordable for a number of big clubs, but the German reporter is quick to point out that it won’t be valid next summer, but a year after that.
True: @ManCity would like to sign Erling Haaland next summer. But: the release at @BVB is only valid from 2022, not in 2021 pic.twitter.com/8bmIFOiS1z
— Christian Falk (@cfbayern) December 11, 2020
That means Dortmund are free to turn down any offer until 2022 for their star, which would allow them to enjoy his services for an extra year without having to worry about him being swiped against their will.
As for Manchester City in all of this, Falk states they ‘would like to sign Erling Haaland next summer’, which coincides with Sergio Agüero’s contract coming to an end.
However, the fact there is no release clause means Txiki Begiristain and co. would have to sit down with their Dortmund counterparts and hash out a deal likely to far exceed the reported £68m he would be available for in 2022.
We’ll have to wait and see what comes from this, but it’s unlikely to be the last we hear from it.
