Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund are trying their best to hold onto their star forward Erling Haaland, whose release clause will get activated soon.
After making a move in January 2020 from RB Salzburg to Borussia, Erling Haaland became an instant star, scoring a hat-trick in his first appearance for the club. He is currently one of the world’s most prolific strikers, with every big European club ready to spend a fortune to win his services. Although his contract with Dortmund doesn’t end any time soon, the release clause will be activated in June 2022.
Chelsea made some audacious bids in the last summer window to get hold of the Norwegian but settled with Romelu Lukaku. But the upcoming summer will open the battleground to land one of the talents of the century, with the both Manchester clubs, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid keenly monitoring the situation.
His rumoured move to one of Spain were also ignited by the player’s recent remarks with fans, where he was spotted on January 1, saying:
“He will play in Spain”.
he was quoted as saying by Sport Mediaset.
The 21-year-old is currently on vacation in Marbella, and his manager Raiola recently revealed that he has a house in Spain. Although it is not clear how much money the big Spanish clubs can shell out, there is definitely extra interest from the player to play in LaLiga.
Dortmund are well aware of the case, and as mentioned by their CEO Hans Joachim-Watzke, they want to keep the player in the club beyond this summer. Often endowed with a reputation of being a selling club, the black-and-yellow will be keen on making the most of their Europa League chances, having finished third in their Champions League where Sporting Lisbon and Ajax finished on top.
There is growing pressure in the Dortmund hierarchy to settle the scenario around Haaland, who could leave the club for a fee under 100 million euros, which is quite a bargain considering the money that has been flowing across Europe for young talents. Watzke is desperate to get a clear idea of the situation and mentioned he will do it in the coming weeks.
“We will talk in the next few weeks. We will all make sure that we don’t wait until March or April to know the decision. I only know for sure that Real Madrid are very interested in him,”
Watzke said in early December,
Haaland’s agent Mino Raiola has been working hard to find a good suitor for the player. In the past, he mentioned that the player has been made available for plenty of clubs, and the clubs themselves are desperate to find out the situation with him. He also made it pretty clear that this season could be his last with Dortmund, with the release clause all set to get activated.
Dortmund are currently trailing by nine points in the Bundesliga to the league leaders Bayern Munich. Haaland has been ruled out for a few games due to his hip injury and is currently nursing towards recovery. This isn’t the best way of heading into the winter break, but there is a growing feeling among club football experts that this could be his last winter break with the club.
Haaland, who became the first-ever player to score a hat-trick as a substitute on Bundesliga debut, went on to achieve unbelievable numbers during his time at the club. He scored 53 goals in 54 games for Dortmund in Bundesliga, and his overall tally currently stands at 76 goals in 79 matches for the club, excluding the 27 assists he made, taking his goal contribution average over one per game.
In the Champions League, he became the fastest player to reach 20 goals and currently, his tally stands at 23 goals in 20 fixtures.
Manchester City, whose desperate attempts to sign Harry Kane went in vain this summer, are set to launch an irresistible offer for the Norwegian, whilst Bayern too are looking across options from Europe to find a successor for Robert Lewandowski.
Manchester United have ageing forwards in their line-up as well, but Real Madrid could have an edge in this saga, with the club pretty much the favourites to land Kylian Mbappe.
Los Blancos chairman Florentino Perez is keen on adding both these high-profile players in the same team in a bid to reignite the glory days the club saw for a period of five years from 2013 to 2018.
