Erling Haaland has informed Borussia Dortmund that he would be leaving this summer, according to reports in Germany, and Manchester City is expected to announce his arrival as soon as this week.
Haaland, who has an $80 million release clause with Dortmund, has been linked to any team with money, but his father, Alfie Haaland, played for Nottingham Forest, Leeds, and Man City between 1993 and 2003.
According to the BBC, “almost all terms of the transaction have been agreed” and Erling Haaland, who is still 21 years old until July, will travel to the Etihad Stadium.
In 88 games for Dortmund, the muscular teenage center forward has averaged nearly a goal per game, scoring 85 goals and assisting 23 times.
In his last five appearances for Norway, Erling Haaland has 15 goals and two assists in 17 senior matches.
How will Manchester City handle this?
If the allegation is accurate — and given Man City’s failure in the UCL semifinals, there’s little reason to dispute it — Haaland could need some time to fully grasp Pep Guardiola’s approach.
But there’s no reason to believe he won’t score a lot of goals. Perhaps he won’t match his goal-per-game output from Dortmund, though given his size and skill, that’s not impossible, but he’ll at least match the output of Gabriel Jesus and co. under Guardiola.
Erling Haaland has excelled at each step up the ladder, from Molde to Salzburg to Norway and Dortmund, and while the Premier League is a weekly step up, it isn’t as drastic as the Austrian Bundesliga to the German Bundesliga.
Some will point to Timo Werner and Kai Havertz’s stop-start careers after transferring to the Premier League from Germany at the same age, but Haaland is on another level entirely and is simply a fully-formed physical marvel in the Zlatan Ibrahimovic mold.
Expect the unexpected.
