Man City ‘preparing’ Erling Haaland offer as Real Madrid suffer £150m blow

Manchester City are reportedly preparing a new contract offer for Erling Haaland that will tie his long-term future to the club.

The striker only joined City last summer but has been repeatedly linked with a move away from the Etihad in his first campaign. Real Madrid have been the side most commonly mentioned with trying to sign Haaland, with a report this week in Fichajes claiming the reigning European champions plan to try and purchase the Norwegian in 2024.

However, City are set to offer Haaland an improved contract to prevent that from happening, according to The Athletic. The new deal would removal a clause in his contract that could see the club’s no.9 leave for £150m in the summer of 2024.

While that clause was originally linked to Guardiola’s future and was cancelled when the City manager extended his contract in November, The Athletic state the exact nature of the release fee is ‘shrouded in secrecy’ and it’s ‘unclear’ whether it could kick back in at a later date.

Haaland is said to be happy at City but a move to Madrid has always been an ‘ambition’ of the former Borussia Dortmund attacker.

Meanwhile, Haaland scored his 47th goal of the campaign at the weekend as City beat Leicester City 3-1. The 22-year-old netted twice in the first half before he was replaced at the break, and Haaland now just needs one more goal in City’s final eight league matches of the campaign to break Mohamed Salah’s record for the most strikes in a single Premier League season, which currently stands at 32.

He’ll also be hoping to score the goals that could fire City to a second consecutive Champions League semi-final meeting with Real. The Blues head to Bayern Munich for the second leg of their quarter-final tie leading 3-0 from the first leg in Manchester last week.