Man Utd suffer huge blow in Haaland race over contract condition

Joe Williams
Erling Haaland Dortmund Man Utd

Man Utd won’t be able to activate Erling Haaland’s release clause in the next transfer window because of a condition in his contract, according to reports.

The Norwegian joined Borussia Dortmund for just £18m in January but the German club had to agree to a buy-out clause thought to be as low as £63m, which has piqued the interest of Real Madrid after he began his spell with 12 goals in 11 games.

ESPN recently claimed that Man Utd would be interested in a deal despite going cold on the transfer in January because of conditions inserted by agent Mino Raiola.


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The report said that ‘Haaland has not burned any bridges with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, his manager at former club Molde’ and that both club and manager still see him as the No. 9 to lead United’s attack over the next decade.

However, both Man Utd and Real Madrid have suffered a blow in their possible pursuit of Haaland with Bild reporting that any interested clubs will have to wait to trigger the Dortmund striker’s release clause.

Bild claims that the buyout clause in his contract is only valid from the summer of 2022,  which means any club will have to pay an inflated fee if they want Haaland before that date.

Meanwhile, Haaland believes joining Red Bull Salzburg in January 2019 was “a perfect move” at that stage of his career.

“It was a perfect move,” he told FourFourTwo.

“In the first half of the year I trained a lot and didn’t play much, but then the summer arrived and I just didn’t look back.

“There was a new manager who helped me a lot: Jesse Marsch was fantastic to me.”

 

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