Erling Haaland’s Manchester City Transfer May Be The Last Of Its Kind

Erling Haaland’s transfer to Manchester City has been described as a lot of things, but cheap isn’t one of them.

It’s curious considering the Citizens acquired one of the world’s finest soccer prospects for just $62.6 million, probably a third of his value on the open market.

Aside from the general narrative of Manchester City being big spenders regardless of the real figures, the reason he has not been described as a bargain is the reported $41.7 million agent fee attached to the deal.

“This transfer will set new levels,” said Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, as news of City’s agreement to buy Haaland emerged.

While the Norwegian’s reported wage packet, which is supposed to be on a par with the club’s current highest earner Kevin De Bruyne at around $24 million per year, might set a new standard, the chances are the agent’s fees will not.

This is because Fifa is on the warpath to pierce the earnings bubble intermediaries have been receiving for some time and according to a report in The Athletic is poised to finally take significant action in doing so.

The publication claims to have seen draft documents stating that soccer’s governing body will approve new restrictions on what agents can earn.

By far the stand-out measure is a 10 percent cap on the fees agents representing both clubs and players can receive from a transfer.

To put that into context, this would reduce the payments to intermediaries for the Haaland deal to just $6.2 million.

Even with the additional commission Fifa is reportedly proposing that agents can earn, 10 percent of a player’s future annual earnings under $200,000 and at 6 percent for anything above that figure, the additional $9.1 million for the duration of Haaland’s contract makes the combined total well under half what is currently being earned.

The agent behind the Haaland deal is, of course, the recently-deceased Mino Raiola, a man well-versed in moving the world’s most exciting soccer players from club to club and earning some incredible fees in the process.

A reported $51 million commission earned by Raiola on the transfer of Paul Pogba to Manchester United is often cited as the point at which agent’s fees spiraled out of control.

Having seen out his Manchester United contract, Pogba himself looks set to be on the move again this summer, with the lack of transfer fee making it likely that the super-agent’s business will earn a hefty sum again.

Haaland and Pogba are far from the only soccer superstars to be switching clubs this summer though.

Kylian Mbappe, Haaland’s main rival for the title of most exciting global prospect, also looks set to move for no transfer fee.

This week Juventus star Paulo Dybala announced he was leaving Turin on a free, Antonia Rudiger will likely join Real Madrid from Chelsea for no fee and Ousmane Dembele, a one-time $110 million player, could leave Barcelona for nothing.

It comes a year after two of the greatest players ever to play the game, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, moved for a fraction of their transfer market value.

Why there are so many free transfers

The obvious answer to why there’s been a sudden shift towards reduced fee transfers is Covid.

Reduced revenue inevitably leads to reduced expenditure, so spending by clubs was always likely to go down.

However, this doesn’t explain the shift in strategy by agents and players.

The players moving clubs for free are not doing so because they wouldn’t be able to command a fee.

The opposite is true, Real Madrid was apparently willing to pay a whopping $260 million for Kylian Mbappe in the summer of 2021, despite knowing that he would cost them nothing if they waited 12 months.

It makes you wonder; are agents sensing that this could be their last chance to earn big or has the market simply been heading that way for some time now?

The truth is probably a bit of both. Players and agents alike took note of the fees involved in the deals like Pogba’s and have sought similar arrangements.

Last year, super-agent Jonathan Barnett told me he strongly opposed Fifa’s efforts to impose restrictions on the industry and said he’d be willing to take the governing body to court over it.

Many of his colleagues are in agreement, but they are also shrewd businessmen, they know it’s safer to do a mega-deal while earnings are uncapped rather than wait until restrictions come in, even if they do fight them.

Having a client with a contract near expiry or that is expired boosts the chances of earning a significant sum.

And as Harry Kane will attest to, having a very long contract could hinder the chances of moving clubs altogether, no matter how much you or your agent might want it.

This might also be the last opportunity for family members to earn substantial sums from deals, The Athletic has also suggested Fifa wants to clamp down on them making money from transfers.

It’s been reported that a large chunk of the $41.7 million commission on the Erling Haaland transfer will go into the pocket of his father Alf-Inge Haaland, a former Manchester City player himself. That may not be able to happen again.

Many in soccer will applaud Fifa’s restrictions as being long overdue, few are considering the impact on the market.

The new regulations will make it in the agent’s interest to drive up the transfer fee as high as possible to maximize the commission. Likewise, it is also beneficial for the agent to drive up wages.

That’s all well and good at the level of Haaland and Mbappe, but further down the pyramid, it will only add to wage inflation.

Johnathan Barnett also argued that it would encourage agents to agitate for transfers more often because you needed more deals to make the same amount of money.

The new level Klopp described may come about for different reasons than he suggested.