Rumour Mongering: Raiola Heading to England to Talk Haaland with Liverpool

Mino Raiola, the agent of Erling Haaland, would like for there to be a bidding war this summer for the star 20-year-old striker. A bidding war that would result in a hefty transfer fee and a fat contract at a new club that would bring with it a sizeable agent’s fee.

As a result, he and the player’s father, former Norway international Alf-Inge Haaland, are currently in Spain holding talks with Barcelona and Real Madrid after stopping in Germany to speak with upper management at Haaldand’s current club, Borussia Dortmund.

We know they’re in Spain talking to Barcelona and Madrid right now because they’ve made sure the Spanish press know it. They’re also telling the Spanish press that they’re heading to England next. Because they would quite like there to be a bidding war this summer.

As to who they’ll be meeting with in England, why it’s representatives of Chelsea and Manchester United and Manchester City and Liverpool. At least that’s what they’re telling the Spanish press. And they may well end up meeting with those clubs this week.

What seems less likely is that they’ll get that bidding war. Not with Barcelona’s finances in shambles and Real Madrid’s not much better. Not with Man United—who couldn’t meet Jadon Sancho’s transfer fee last year—having to take on loans to pay operating costs.

As for Liverpool, even without the coronavirus pandemic throwing finances into chaos—the Reds are currently said to be down about £120M over the past year, a number that will continue to rise in the coming months—Haaland’s likely fee would be eye-watering.

This summer, the kind of outlay it would take to bring him in in transfer fee, wages, and agent fees makes this idea preposterous. Realistically, the only mentioned club that could easily afford Haaland this summer is Man City—and perhaps, at a stretch, Chelsea.

And that includes the likes of Barcelona and Madrid. Raiola may want a bidding war, but he’s unlikely to get one. Instead, the so-called Haaland sweepstakes seem likely to come down quite entirely to whether City want to pay what Dortmund will demand for him.

If not, he’ll have to stick around at Dortmund for another season in the hopes Barcelona and Madrid and maybe a few others can afford him in 2022, which would hardly seem the worst thing for the 20-year-old superstar striker but wouldn’t get Raiola a payday this year.