Man City: Haaland ‘gives OK’ to ‘bombshell’ Barcelona transfer; demands affordable release clause

Man City striker Erling Haaland has reportedly agreed to sign for Barcelona with the Catalan club’s dream ‘closer to becoming a reality’.

The Citizens have made a brilliant start to the new season under Pep Guardiola with three wins out of three against Chelsea, Ipswich Town and West Ham.

Haaland has scored an incredible seven goals in those three matches, including hat-tricks against Ipswich and West Ham.

The Norway international has 97 goals in 102 appearances for Man City since joining from Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2022.

There has been speculation ever since he signed for the Citizens that he could leave for one of Real Madrid or Barcelona in the future with Haaland looking to play in La Liga at some point in his career.

Rumours have been building over the last couple of days about a potential new contract at Man City with the Premier League side understandably keen to tie him down to fresh terms.

But now reports in Spain have claimed that Haaland has ‘asked’ Man City for a release clause in his contract low enough that Barcelona could afford to trigger it.

It is claimed that Haaland’s ‘entourage’ has ‘given the OK’ to a transfer to Barcelona with Haaland attracted to ‘an ambitious sporting project, which allows him to continue growing and, above all, compete for the Ballon d’Or’.

Despite the potential huge fees involved in a transfer, Barcelona ‘trust that the player’s desire to change of scenery could be the decisive factor to tip the balance in their favour’.

The report adds that ‘the dream of seeing him dressed in Barca is closer to becoming a reality. The bomb is ready to explode.’

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It’s hard to see Guardiola sanctioning his exit anytime soon with the Man City boss waxing lyrical about the Norwegian’s abilities, claiming you can’t stop him scoring “even with a gun”.

Guardiola said after his latest hat-trick against West Ham: “He’s playing much better in everything. He stays 20 minutes or half an hour after training sessions. Last season not even once was he there because he didn’t feel good – tired, niggles.

“What he needs is the team to give him more balls in the final third. We’re going to create those situations. He’s unstoppable, there’s no central defender, not even with a gun to stop him.”

On Haaland, Guardiola added: “Always he scores goals and it’s what he has to do. We are happy for another hat-trick, the quality of the finishing, but he was involved with the game today, he didn’t lose one ball and he played unbelievable – not just with the ball but also defensively and offensively.

“I’m really pleased for him but now officially pre-season is over. The international break starts the real season, so we see how he recovers from this amount of games. I’m not a physio or doctor, so I don’t know [about his recovery].

“Not just Erling but everyone. Today again we made just one change because Savinho was not able to play and these three games we played the same team more or less because of many reasons – Rico [Lewis] and [Mateo] Kovacic deserve to play but from now on everyone is going to play because we cannot sustain this rhythm every three days for 11 months. All the players look fit. Matheus Nunes made an assist like Kevin De Bruyne. Everyone played really good.”

READ MORE: The ridiculous stats of Erling Haaland: More Premier League goals than Luis Suarez