Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola (51) denied that Erling Braut Haaland (22) had a contractual opportunity to leave the club for Real Madrid at some point.
Haaland had a takeover clause in his contracts with both Austrian Red Bull Salzburg and German Borussia Dortmund earlier in his career, both of which were activated. In recent days, Spanish media have claimed that Real Madrid can take advantage of a similar opportunity and buy Haaland for a certain amount in 2024, without City being able to do anything about it.
– this is not true. He has no clause for Real Madrid or any other team, Guardiola tells VG and other Manchester media after the 5-0 win over FC Copenhagen on Wednesday night as Haaland scored two new goals.
– What do you think of the allegations?
You can’t control rumors or what someone else says. The most important thing is that he adapted very well. I have a feeling he is very happy here and we are trying to make the players happy here. Everyone loves him.
Jack Grealish is one of Haaland’s best friends at Manchester City (27). The two offensive profiles got into a good tone almost immediately following the Norwegian’s arrival in the summer.
In the victory over FC Copenhagen, Grealish was named the best player on the field. After that, he was mostly interested in talking about Haaland’s achievements. In total, Yarboin scored 19 times in 12 games for City.
– It’s unbelievable, to be completely honest. I’ve never seen anything like this in my entire life. I just laughed at the first and second goal. Because he’s always there, Grealish tells BT Sports, before revealing a conversation with FCK goalkeeper Kamil Grabara (23) about Haaland during the match:
– Their guard said to me: “He is not a human!”
“And you’re telling me that?” I replied, Grealish says, laughing.
During City’s training camp in the USA this summer, VG captured this conversation between Haaland and Grealish:
With two goals before the break, Haaland could have chased down a fourth hat-trick in front of the home team’s fans in a row in the second half, but Guardiola believes 45 minutes could go on. This is due to the tight schedule.
He played several minutes and the match was under control. So Cole Palmer is the best player I want to give him time to play. Erling could have played more, but it would have been better for him to rest. The City boss says we are thinking about the Southampton game at the weekend, which we didn’t win last season.
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