It’s official. At the end of the season, Manchester City will sign Borussia Dortmund’s
Erling Haaland and, after a long pursuit, one of the most sought after players in world
football is heading to the Premier League.
Here’s the story of how the deal was done.
Last September, just a matter of weeks after City’s move for Harry Kane had fallen through,
there was already talk that they would win the race for Haaland. By Christmas, however,
there was a real fear within the club that Real Madrid had the advantage.
At a board meeting early in 2022, City’s top brass were presented with a plan that
would require a figure in the region of — but no greater than — £190 million. When they
asked what it was for, they were told “a player”. Secrecy is a big thing for City,
on every deal.
Everything had been calculated to the penny: release clause, agent commissions, wages,
bonuses, everything. It took many months for the money to be put to good use — it was
only in early May that paperwork was signed, and that release clause at Dortmund does not
have to be paid in full straight away — but City have known exactly how much they can
spend for a few months.
The deal is considerably cheaper than expected. It had been commonly acknowledged for well
over a year that the clause inserted into Haaland’s Dortmund contract when he joined
them from Austria’s Red Bull Salzburg in January 2020 would be worth €75 million,
but that was not the full picture.
That was the number Mino Raiola, Haaland’s agent, who passed away in April, had given
to interested parties. City themselves only learned the true figure — €60 million,
or £51 million — relatively recently.
City were never going to pay anything above the amount specified in a legal document but
the commissions were harder to tame. In total, another €40 million will be paid to Raiola’s
operation, now fronted up by the lawyer Rafaela Pimenta, who finalised negotiations in recent
weeks, and Haaland’s father.
Still, City will argue that a total outlay of roughly £85 million still represents at
least half of Haaland’s value were he to be available on the open market.
The rest of the figure presented to the City board is made up of Haaland’s wages of around
£400,000 per week for five years; when bonuses are included, that puts him alongside Kevin
De Bruyne as the club’s top earner. But City’s determination to outgun Real Madrid could
not have been done on financial terms alone.
A big pull was Guardiola. Perhaps the big pull. But there was a problem: his contract
only runs for another season.
Part of the reason Haaland is coming to Manchester rather than Madrid, then, is thought to be
because he has been given assurances that Guardiola will be staying on for at least
another couple of years. A City spokesperson, however, insists there will be no talks on
the manager’s future until next season.
Txiki Begiristain, their sporting director, has been credited by those familiar with the
Haaland deal as a key figure in securing the most sought-after of signatures. Begiristain
and Omar Berrada, the chief football operations officer, work as a double act on City’s
transfer dealings and they were inseparable on this one, going off-grid for days at a
time to hold talks with the Haaland camp.
They flew to Monaco, where Raiola had been battling illness, at the start of February
and made a breakthrough in talks.
The pair knew that playing for Real Madrid was, and is, a major ambition for Haaland
and the 21-year-old felt that Spanish football would suit his style. Despite being one of
the most physically imposing players on the planet, he believed that the generally less
physical Primera Division would help him avoid injuries.
But Begiristain used this to outline why Manchester would be a better fit than the Spanish capital.
Haaland has played a lot of football since his move to Germany, with both Dortmund and Norway
relying on him heavily. He has missed 16 club games this season – and it was put to him
that this could easily continue in La Liga because, as a Galactico signing, he would have to play
in as many games for Madrid as humanly possible. If not, there would be pressure on the manager.
In turn, there would be pressure on the club’s president, Florentino Perez.
At City, however, Guardiola is such a strong personality that he would decide to rest Haaland
if he felt it was necessary and would be able to handle any criticism that came his way
over it. So, if Haaland needed a rest, at City he would get one.
So, City were in the driver’s seat after those talks in February, but time passed and
nothing moved forward, with little contact between the parties. So much so that after
more positive conversations at the beginning of April, City came away feeling they were
close to getting their man but wary that another month, at least, could pass without further
progress. That proved not to be the case, and within
days they had received the green light.
Things progressed rapidly from there, with lawyer Pimenta in the UK to finalise terms
and then flying to Germany with Alfie to inform Dortmund that City would trigger the clause.
Interestingly, Begiristain did not just have to convince Haaland about the move. He had
to have a word with Guardiola, too.
The City manager had preferred a move for Kane last summer, and not just because the
England captain was deemed to be the more available of the two, given Haaland’s release
clause did not kick in for another year. Guardiola felt Kane would be the better fit for his
team.
He was not dead-set against a move for Haaland by any means — he is said to be thoroughly
excited to work with him, and has spoken to him on the phone.
As much as anything, Guardiola will be delighted to get a big deal done. City had originally
attempted to sign Kane in the summer of 2020 but shifted focus to Lionel Messi at Barcelona.
Then they returned to Kane last summer, only to end up with neither.
This time, however, they’ve been successful. City knew exactly what they had to pay and
to do and, in Haaland, they’ve signed one of the premier goalscorers
of the generation.