Club president Florentino Perez has suggested that Man City forward Erling Haaland would “stay on the bench” if he signed for Real Madrid.
The striker scored 86 goals in 89 appearances for Borussia Dortmund across all competitions.
The 21-year-old was always set to leave the German side this summer as his release clause became active.
Sentiment aside, you can’t make a compelling case for Steph Houghton at Euro 2022
The likes of Man Utd and PSG were linked with him but he has opted to sign for Man City for a fee in the region of £51m.
Real Madrid meanwhile were hoping to sign Kylian Mbappe before he penned a contract extension at PSG.
34-year-old Karim Benzema is Madrid’s first-choice striker. He scored 44 goals in 46 appearances last season.
Perez has claimed that Real Madrid did not sign Haaland this summer because he would have played second fiddle to Benzema:
“[The] Mbappe deal didn’t create any problems with Haaland deal. We have Benzema, so it was impossible to have [Haaland] with Karim,” Perez told El Chiringuito (via Manchester Evening News).
“We can’t sign Haaland to stay on the bench. Haaland is an amazing, fantastic player.”
Perez also denied knowing if there was any truth to reports suggesting there is a release clause in Haaland’s Man City contract:
“I don’t know if Erling Haaland has a release clause into his contract with Man City,” he added.
“I’ve seen some stories about it but I don’t have anything confirmed. He’s a great player but we have Benzema. It wasn’t linked to Mbappe.”
Elsewhere, Man City are reportedly about to make their opening offer for Brighton left-back Marc Cucurella.
The Guardian confirm that Brighton defender Cucurella is still City’s top target at left-back with the club ‘poised to bid’ for the Spain international.
It is understood that ‘Guardiola is determined to sign his fellow Catalan after being impressed by his performances in the Premier League’ with Brighton – who are also on the verge of selling Yves Bissouma – set to make a ‘sizeable profit’ on the £15.4m they paid Getafe last August for Cucurella’s services.
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Football365…