Man City keen to remove clause from Erling Haaland's contract

Manchester City are keen to remove the release clause in Erling Haaland's contract that would allow him to leave the Etihad Stadium for a set price, 90min understands.

The 22-year-old has been utterly sensational since he arrived at City last summer, and recently broke a 95-year club record held by Tommy Johnson for the most goals scored in a single season.

Haaland already has 42 goals to his name in all competitions, including 28 in just 26 Premier League outings and ten in the group stages of the Champions League, and he scored his sixth hat-trick of the season in Saturday's 6-0 win over Burnley in the FA Cup quarter-finals.

The Norwegian is widely regarded as one of the best players in the world, though that much was evident last summer when Haaland had not only City vying for his signature, but also Real Madrid, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich.

City eventually won the race to sign Haaland from Borussia Dortmund, which like most deals in the modern game contained various options and clauses covering all parties.

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One particular clause in Haaland's contract was that he could, in theory, leave for a set fee in the future, similar to the deals he had in place at Dortmund and RB Salzburg.

Sources have told 90min that the clause was tied to the future of manager Pep Guardiola, who signed a new contract in November to extend his stay at the club until 2025, and that not only changed the date on Haaland's clause activating but also it's value to at least €200m.

While City are in no way worried about Haaland's future, 90min understands, they are prepared to sit down and discuss a new contract that would not only remove the clause completely, but also reward Haaland for his scintillating goalscoring form.

Whether or not there's interest from Haaland and his representatives is another matter, given he is less than 12 months into the five-year contract he signed in June 2022.

Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG and Bayern Munich all retain an interest in signing Haaland, but they are acutely aware that the most likely route to signing him is via the release clause - which does not apply to rival Premier League clubs.

Why does Erling Haaland have a release clause?

Some have questioned the motives behind Haaland having a release clause written into his City contract, given they have won the Premier League in four out of the last five seasons are regularly touted as favourites to win the Champions League.

But his agent, Rafaela Pimenta, recently explained the reasons for Haaland having a clause in his contract, in addition to valuing her client at an eye-watering £1bn.

“When a player goes to a club, I do all I can to create a situation where the key is in their hands," she told AS.

"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 wide 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.”

The world's most expensive player remains Neymar, who joined PSG from Barcelona for €222m in 2017.

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On this edition of Talking Transfers, part of the 90min podcast network, Scott Saunders, Graeme Bailey & Toby Cudworth discuss Harry Kane's future at Tottenham Hotspur, Joao Felix potentially joining Chelsea on a permanent basis, David Raya, Marco Asensio, Alexis Mac Allister & more!

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