The reason why current Man City superstar Erling Haaland didn’t join Bayern Munich in the summer has been revealed, as per reports emanating from Germany.
Haaland completed his switch from Borussia Dortmund to Man City in June for a reported fee of around £51million, which is considered an absolute bargain considering the success of his spell in Germany. The Norwegian netted an astonishing 86 goals and provided 23 assists in just 89 appearances for the Black and Yellow.
Since his move to Manchster, Haaland has arguably taken his game to another level. The goal-scoring machine is finding the back of the net at a higher rate than any time before in his fledgling career, scoring 20 goals in his first 14 games for the Sky Blues.
Haaland is on course to break Mohamed Salah’s record of 32 goals in a single Premier League campaign as the striker is set to demolish the 50-goal mark should he continue scoring at his current frequency.
However, things could have been much different. Haaland could have been donning the red of Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich, where he’d be the perfect Robert Lewandowski replacement, if the Bavarian giants had just agreed to one condition demanded by the former Dortmund star’s entourage.
German transfer expert Christian Falk revealed that Bayern rejected the opportunity to sign Haaland after the superstar’s team demanded a release clause be inserted into the contract. The Bavarians turned down the demand as the Club is operated in a manner which doesn’t accommodate penalty clauses in order to safeguard their financial interests. The last Bayern player to have a release clause was Franck Ribéry back in the early 2010s.
Man City, on the other hand, accepted the release clause and arranged the stipulation in a way that will still see the Premier League champions turn over a significant profit on Haaland should he eventually depart the Club.
However, the current PL top-scorer’s agent Rafaela Pimenta recently spoke about how her and her client would be happy to discuss a new deal with Man City, despite only being at the Club for four months.
“I hope so, if they want to discuss today we would be happy,” said Pimenta to Sky Sports. “Why not? All is good.” A new deal for Haaland may see the release clause scrapped from his contract amid growing speculation the player will leave City for one of the two Spanish giants Real Madrid or Barcelona in the near future.