FourFourTwo December 2021 37League spot they would eventually secure
- refused to sell. Raiola knew as much, too.
“But that doesn’t mean I agree,” he sniffed.
Yet why flirt with Barça and Madrid when
neither had any cash?
“He was testing the market,” Bild’s
Christian Falk tells FFT. “He knew it wasn’t
possible for Madrid or Barça. The only club
that was serious was Chelsea. Roman
Abramovich was thinking of buying him. He
likes Haaland, and Thomas Tuchel was – and
still is – a fan. They were looking for that kind
of striker, and they had some money, but in
the end the price was too high.”
How high? “I heard Dortmund say that
anything below €175m, they wouldn’t talk.
If you heard Raiola talking about the money
Haaland should earn, I don’t think anyone
will pay it. But it’s a poker game – €50m per
year is the price we heard. It’s too much for
every club during a pandemic. There will be
just a handful of clubs that can afford him.”
A quick look at Haaland’s Instagram might
suggest a kid drunk on his own wealth. He
hails from the down-to-earth agricultural
south-western coast, yet in the summer he
was spotted on a yacht in Mykonos wearing
a £2,250 Louis Vuitton ‘watercolour’ outfit.
In May, he was off to watch the Formula 1
in Monaco, grinning on a private plane in
striped Dolce & Gabbana get-up. That
picture was shown to Norway coach Stale
Solbakken. “There’s no way he’s turning up
here dressed like that,” he chuckled.
If Solbakken was relaxed, it was because
he knew Haaland wouldn’t lose his focus. In
July, the striker was back on the west coast
in a hoodie, shorts and trainers, feeding
cows. “Sunglasses and fancy clothes done,”
he wrote. “Now back to work with my pals!”
He obsesses about sleep and meditation,
and salutes Cristiano Ronaldo’s fish and
chicken diet. When Dortmund started their
league campaign at home to Eintracht
Frankfurt in August, Haaland scored two
goals and assisted three in a 5-2 win.
A couple of muscle injuries have disrupted
his flow since then, but by mid-October he
had plundered 13 goals in nine games when
a torn hip flexor muscle ruled him out until
mid-December at the earliest.
“He’s made a big improvement,” says Falk.
“You’d have thought that it wasn’t possible,
but he’s done it again. At Bayern Munich
they always talk about a winning mentality,
and this is the only thing Dortmund have
been missing over the past few years.
Now they have a player who has it, and it’s
Haaland. If they have a chance to win the
title this year, it’s because of him.”
In October, Bild reported that Dortmund
wanted to almost double Haaland’s wages
to make him stay.
“They’re trying to give the supporters faith
that they can keep hold of him,” says Falk.
“But I think everybody knows, both within
the club and the Bundesliga, that they won’t.”
So where is he going?
“We can’t say which club it’ll be,” says Falk- and if he doesn’t know, then nobody does.
Still, the fact remains that some clubs have
a much better chance than others...SHOW THEM THE MONEY
One thing seems certain, though: nobody in
Italy can afford Erling Haaland – neither Falk
nor Karlsen even mention Serie A as a likely
destination. Beppe Marotta, the ex-Juventus
CEO now at Inter, still rues an opportunity he
missed to get Haaland for €2m when he was
in Norway. “We were close,” said Marotta.
“Now it’s impossible to see Haaland playing
in Serie A.”
During Barça’s presidential elections, which
concluded in March, some candidates used
Haaland as bait. The advisor of Emili Rousaud,
one of the candidates, hinted that they had
an agreement for him to join. “Fake news!”
Raiola shot back. Now, a broke Barça seem
out of the question.
All of which narrows the field down to Real
Madrid, Bayern, Paris Saint-Germain and the
Premier League. Bayern love nabbing their
rivals’ best players, but their former CEO,
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, has anticipated
a bidding war that rules them out. “He’ll be
taken by the club that offers the highest
salary,” he said. “I don’t think it’s possible
for any Bundesliga club, not even Bayern.”
Karlsen believes Bayern would be one of
the favourites were it not for the agent fee.
Falk thinks they could still make an offer.
“They’re thinking about it,” he says. “But
it also depends on Harry Kane and what
Manchester City are doing; it depends on
Madrid and Mbappe. And at Bayern there’s
another big question, too: what is Robert
Lewandowski’s next step?”
In August, there were reports that the
Polish hitman wanted out. Falk says Lewy’s
agent, Pini Zahavi, is trying to get him sold in
the summer, which would free some Bayern
cash for Haaland and a place upfront in the
team. “But can they pay his salary?” asks
Falk. “If it’s really €50m, then they can’t do it.
We know that Lewandowski is earning about
€25m – so if Haaland would be fine with that
amount, there’s a small chance that he
could go to Bayern.”
The €50m might just be a gambit, anyway.
“I think it’s Raiola playing games,” says Falk.
“He’s always naming a big price so everyone
gets frightened, and then they talk.”
Then there’s PSG. For the Qatari owners,
who might have to stomach losing Mbappe
on a free to Madrid six months before the
World Cup, Haaland could be the only
adequate target.
“We heard Paris were thinking about him
last summer, in case Mbappe left,” says Falk.
“I heard that Haaland would be interested in
playing with Messi. I don’t think it’s his first
choice, but we’re talking about money, and
when Raiola is involved it’s always a question
of money. If the Premier League can’t pay
him, and Madrid can’t do anything because
Mbappe is enough, I think this is absolutely
the easiest way for him to go somewhere.
But I don’t think it’s his first choice.”
So what is? “If you were to ask him, ‘Hey,
would you like to play with Mbappe at22 FOR
2022