Erling Haaland is set to complete his transfer from Borussia Dortmund to Manchester City in the coming days, with Real Madrid set to be one of the parties left disappointed they could not get a deal over the line.
Haaland has been a hot topic of football transfer news for months, with his prolific form for Dortmund prompting interest from all of Europe’s top clubs.
It is almost unanimously reported that the forward has agreed to terms with City.
And FootMercato even further states that he has had his medical in Belgium on Monday.
For an extended period, though, Real Madrid had genuine hopes of signing the striker.
CadenaSER has reported why Los Blancos have missed out on the forward.
And it has nothing to do with either wage issues or a problem meeting his €75 million release clause.
Instead, it is to do with the finer details of the deal.
According to the report, Mino Raiola, the late agent of the 21-year-old, wanted a clause in the deal that would have allowed his contract to be bought out for €150m, which could have been triggered in the second year of the player’s contract.
However, it would have left Madrid in danger of losing the striker for under market value – much like Dortmund will do this summer.
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez took a firm line on this proposal, rejecting it.
For Real Madrid, though, it would have made little sense to have agreed to these terms.
They were having such a clause in Haaland’s contract would have loaded everything in his favour.
If he were to flop at the Bernabeu, he would have a contract to fall back on, but if he were to succeed.
Madrid would be threatened to lose him for a fee outside of their control at a time.
It is telling that they have put massive release fees on many other more modest players. Eder Militao’s release clause, for example, is €1 billion.
Haaland’s Real Madrid move was always likely to be challenging to negotiate.
Manchester City is more than happy to jump in and take advantage.
Likewise, for more football news like this, click here.
