Hans-Joachim Watzke, the long-serving Borussia Dortmund president who recruited Erling Haaland, has outlined a measured timeline for the Manchester City striker\u2019s potential move to Real Madrid.<\/p>\n
Watzke told Spanish publication AS that Haaland\u2019s admiration for Real is clear but that an immediate transfer is unlikely. \u201cI know very well what he thinks, and I can say that he certainly admires Real Madrid and would like to play for them in the future, but next season he will continue playing for Manchester City. Without a doubt,\u201d he said. Watzke added: \u201cHe loves Real Madrid and he doesn\u2019t hide it. I think he\u2019ll be playing there in two or three years, but not that soon. He hasn\u2019t committed to anyone, as his father has said.\u201d<\/p>\n
The comments come amid an overheated backdrop at Real Madrid, where presidential hopeful Enrique Riquelme named Haaland as a target if he were to replace Florentino P\u00e9rez. That pledge was emphatically rejected by the player\u2019s representatives and by Manchester City, which denied any \u201ccontractual clause to enable it\u201d and said it was even \u201cconsidering legal action for the use of our player image in this context.\u201d<\/p>\n
Haaland\u2019s agent, Rafaela Pimenta, told La Sexta in March: \u201cEverything is going very well for him and we really have nothing to discuss about a transfer when everything is so good at City.\u201d Pimenta has previously said she has never negotiated a player contract without a release clause, but City\u2019s statement and her own admission to ESPN last month that the club gives her \u201cno leverage\u201d have cast doubt on that claim.<\/p>\n
With a contract that extends for years at Manchester City, any transfer would require an extraordinary offer or the player pushing for a move. Watzke\u2019s forecast \u2014 a switch within two to three years rather than immediately \u2014 reflects those practical constraints.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, the Real Madrid vote on June 7 will determine the club\u2019s leadership, a result that could affect future managerial plans. Jos\u00e9 Mourinho is reported as the candidate to take a three-year managerial deal only if P\u00e9rez is re-elected, while Riquelme has named J\u00fcrgen Klopp as his choice. Watzke regards Klopp joining Real Madrid this summer as a non-starter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Watzke says Haaland admires Real Madrid and could move in two to three years, not immediately. Soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14224,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1523,238,987],"tags":[983],"class_list":["post-14225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-borussia-dortmund","category-manchester-city","category-real-madrid","tag-agents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}