Saturday, June 18, 2022 at 4:34 PM• Jeroen van Poppel

Real Madrid considers Erling Braut Haaland the absolute top target for the coming years, reports ASH† The Royal It is known that he made a big mistake with Kylian Mbappe and sees the 21-year-old Norwegian striker as the ideal alternative in the long run. Real Madrid are reportedly already saving up to 150 million euros needed in 2024 to trigger the alleged escape clause in Haaland’s contract with Manchester City.

Haaland has not played a minute for City, but rumors of a next transfer are already brewing. Real could not make a serious attempt for Haaland this summer, because there were fears of a clash with captain Karim Benzema. The Madrilenians suggested Haaland stay at Borussia Dortmund for another season and move to the Santiago Bernabeu in 2023, but the Scandinavian insisted on leaving Germany. And so Haaland chose Manchester City, which easily complied with its verbally agreed escape clause of around 75 million euros.

Florentino Pérez recently emphasized on sports channel El Chiringuito although the transfers of Mbappe and Haaland ‘have nothing to do with each other’. Real Madrid wanted to add Mbappe to Paris Saint-Germain this summer on a free transfer and to add Haaland only next year. The operation Mbappé flopped as is well known and that of Haaland is forced to be postponed by a year. As with his transfer to Dortmund, Haaland is also said to have enforced an exit clause in Manchester which will come into effect over time, just as happened in Germany. The amount linked to this has therefore doubled to 150 million euros compared to Dortmund.

It is no problem for Real Madrid to wait for Haaland, now that Benzema has had by far the best season of his football career. After winning the Champions League and LaLiga, the 34-year-old top scorer is on track to win the Ballon d’Or for the first time in his career. Benzema has a contract until mid-2023 and will therefore be the absolute leader of the attack for at least one more season the Royal to be. “If anyone came this summer, it would be as a stand-in for Benzema, but not for the starting squad,” Perez said recently.