Erling Haaland seems Manchester City-bound, which seems a little bit at odds with Norwegian opposition to Qatar.
According to some media outlets, the deal is just about done. Erling Braut Haaland, the Ivan Drago of European football, will be a Manchester City player next season, with City having apparently met the €75m (£62m, at current exchange rates) release clause in the 21-year-old striker’s contract with Borussia Dortmund.
The £62m fee under-values the player at current market rates, but this doesn’t mean that Haaland will come cheap. The agent Mino Raiola has to get his cut, and if the quoted wage of £500,000 a week is correct, then City’s financial outlay for his wages alone on a five-year contract will be more than £130m, pushing the overall cost to more than £200m. In the super-heated world of elite football finances, quality does not come cheap.
Everybody already knows what Manchester City will be getting for their money. Haaland is only 21 years old, yet he has already managed just about a goal a game throughout his career, with 82 in 85 for Borussia Dortmund and 15 in 17 for the Norwegian national team. An almost immeasurably strong team will be made even stronger.
Now let’s talk sportswashing because we must continue to talk sportswashing or we are part of the problem.
Haaland is Norwegian and Norwegian football has been at the forefront of protests against this winter’s World Cup finals being held in Qatar. When Norway played Gibraltar and Turkey in international friendlies in March 2021, for example, their players took to the pitch wearing t-shirts with ‘Human rights on and off the pitch’ emblazoned across them.
Under a threat of being banned from the 2026 World Cup by FIFA, the Norwegian FA eventually voted to continue anyway, but it all ended up somewhat academic; Norway finished in third place in their group and failed even to make the play-offs. The words printed on Haaland’s t-shirt will be ringing pretty empty if he…
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