Erling Haaland will be a Borussia Dortmund player next season, says club chief Hans-Joachim Watzke, as he dismisses Mino Raiola’s tour to Real Madrid and Barcelona for transfer talks as ‘self-marketing’
- Borussia Dortmund remain confident Erling Haaland will be there next season
- Real Madrid, Barcelona and Man City among clubs linked with Norwegian striker
- But Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke has a ‘clear expectation’ he will stay
- Asking price for Haaland reduces in 2022 because of a contract clause
- It came as Bayern Munich ruled out any move for the striker this summer
Borussia Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke is optimistic in-demand striker Erling Haaland will still be at the club next season.
The prolific Norwegian striker, 20, has been linked with a number of prominent European clubs including Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester City.
Watzke’s remarks come as incoming Bayern Munich chief Oliver Kahn ruled out a summer swoop to sign Haaland from their rivals.
Borussia Dortmund are confident they can hang on to striker Erling Haaland this summer
The club’s CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke has a ‘clear expectation’ Haaland will remain there
Haaland is contracted to Dortmund through until 2024 but has a clause in his deal that will allow him to be signed for about £70million in the summer of 2022.
Given that Dortmund are demanding pretty much double that to sell Haaland this summer, Watzke is confident he will stay a little longer.
‘I have the clear expectation that Erling Haaland will play for us next year,’ he told Sport Bild. ‘And I don’t waste any thoughts on anything else.’
Asked if Dortmund would consider an approach from Barcelona or Real Madrid, he replied: ‘I think they know about the contract situation and our stance there as well.
Haaland has been linked with a number of prominent European clubs ahead of the summer
His agent Mino Raiola has already held transfer talks with Real Madrid and Barcelona
‘I am just totally relaxed. Nobody believed us with Jadon Sancho last summer until deadline day, and he’s still with us today.’
Haaland’s agent Mino Raiola and his father Alf-Inge visited Barcelona and Real for transfer talks last month but Watzke described it as a ‘self-marketing’ trip.
He said: ‘Firstly, he had informed us in advance. Secondly, it’s clear that Erling will leave us at some point, just not so quickly.
‘We also know that such trips are always a matter of self-marketing with Mino Raiola.
‘You could of course start a game of ping pong and attack each other in public every second game.
The Norwegian’s asking price is set to drop substantially next summer because of his contract
Kahn (above) says a package worth over £86million for Haaland is ‘unimaginable’ for Bayern
‘You either have a model where you sign a player and then let him go again or you don’t have it. We can live with it and feel well because we know the contract situation, which helps us a lot.’
Haaland has scored 37 goals and set up a further 11 in 38 matches across all competitions for Dortmund this season so far.
It came as Khan poured cold water on any prospect of Bayern signing Haaland.
Kahn claimed that those who speak about the Bundesliga giants’ interest in Haaland ‘don’t understand the situation’.
The Germany legend, who is currently a director at the Allianz Arena told Bild: ‘Sorry, whoever spoke about that didn’t understand the situation.
‘A package that costs – as we heard – over €100million (£86m) is unimaginable for FC Bayern at the moment.’
