Why Erling Haaland’s Release Clause Should Not Worry Manchester City

Erling Haaland has only played 13 matches for Manchester City, but already he looks on course to smash the Premier League goalscoring record and has more goals in the Champions League than Luis Suarez, Harry Kane and Robin Van Persie.

How many other records he breaks at City depends on how long the Norwegian stays in Manchester. This week, news broke of a $195 million release clause in his contract that becomes active in 2024.

This could concern some Manchester City fans; after all, Haaland joined City after they paid the $60 million release clause in his contract with Borussia Dortmund.

The current release clause only applies to teams outside the Premier League, but with Barcelona and Real Madrid both likely to be in the market for a striker soon to replace Robert Lewandowski and Karim Benzema, respectively, both clubs will be looking at that release clause as an opportunity.

The question is, can they afford him?

Haaland’s release clause by itself would make him the second most expensive transfer of all time, behind the $215 million that Paris Saint-Germain paid for Neymar in 2017. It’s almost twice Real Madrid’s record transfer fee of $110 million, which they paid for Eden Hazard.

And on top of the transfer fee will be an agent’s fee, which could be more than $50 million, as well as Haaland’s wages. Reports suggest that Haaland could be on as much as $1 million a week once bonuses are added, and he would no doubt want a pay rise should he move clubs.

Barcelona’s financial difficulties have been well documented and could get even worse should they fail to make the knockout stages of this season’s Champions League. With the Premier League steaming ahead of La Liga in terms of commercial and broadcasting deals, even Real Madrid are not the financial behemoths they used to be, despite being top of Forbes’ most valuable soccer teams.

Real Madrid’s so-called “Mbappe Fund”, where they cut down on new signings for several seasons and sold a few future prospects like Achraf Hakimi and Martin Odegaard in order to save up for French forward Kylian Mbappe, shows that should they want Haaland, he would come at a cost, perhaps weakening the rest of their squad.

The European champions’ main non-financial appeal for Haaland would be that they can compete for the biggest trophies, but if they have to weaken their squad to buy him, then they would become a less appealing club for Haaland to join.

But the main reason why Manchester City fans need not worry about the release clause is that in five seasons, Haaland could leave for free anyway.

If he is happy at City in two years’ time, then City could offer him a new contract and end up staying in Manchester for the rest of his career. If he is unhappy, then he will be leaving no matter what.

Haaland is already playing for a club that is competing for the top honors in world soccer, and is already beamed around the world at Manchester City. The club are well-run and set up to keep on winning, whereas any move would have an element of risk. Many of the other most expensive transfers in soccer have not been anywhere near as successful as imagined.

As City don’t have to pay a fee to sign him, they could afford to offer him an even more lucrative deal in his next contract and could likely match whatever Real Madrid or Barcelona could offer.

All this considered, the existence of a $195 million release clause makes very little difference to whether Haaland will stay at Manchester City in the long-term.