HITC understands that Manchester City are continuing to try and persuade Erling Haaland to sign a new contract with the club.
Haaland joined Manchester City in the summer of 2022 on a five-year deal, but the contract includes release clauses within it – which were insisted upon by the Norwegian’s representatives.
City have refused to confirm their existence of any clauses but HITC can confirm they include allowing Haaland to be able to leave for set figure – beginning in the summer of 2025 when it is believed the figure would be around €200million.
Clauses
It is understood that there was a clause allowing him to leave in 2024, but that became null and void when Pep Guardiola signed his new contract at the end of 2022 season at was tied to the future of the head coach.
HITC understand that City have been in conversation with Haaland’s team since late 2022 to try and persuade him to sign a new deal, that would see all his clauses removed in some way.
However, Haaland’s team have made it clear that it not in their thinking. His lead agent is Rafaela Pimenta and she has previously revealed the reasoning behind the clauses – something he has had in all his contracts, be it at Red Bull Salzburg, Borussia Dortmund or Manchester City.
She told AS in 2022: “When a player goes to a club, I do all I can to create a situation where the key is in their hands.
Future explained
“If tomorrow you don’t want to be there anymore because you don’t like it, or if they don’t pay you well, or if your wife wants to live in Paris, well, you go, no? I don’t like it when the player has no freedom to decide. I have done all the contracts in this agency in 25 years. All of them. There wasn’t a single time when a player said ‘I want to go’ and they could not do it.
“For me, Haaland is worth a billion, no one is going to pay that, but it’s the potential that he has when he arrives at a club. He brings with him fans, goals, results, professionalism, digital content, notoriety, sponsors…if you put all that together, his value includes a lot of things.
“But the price of a footballer, in reality, is set by a club. I know that no one is going to pay 700m for one player, but it’s very clear that Erling’s value when he arrives at a club is immense, it’s at least a billion.”
Real Madrid have long been linked with the Norwegian, but HITC understands that Barcelona have already made it clear that they have an interest in exploring a deal for the Scandinavian in 2025 at which point his first release clause would be active.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
