Erling Haaland has made his first public comments since Manchester City were found guilty by an independent panel of more than 100 breaches of Premier League financial regulations, and the striker gave little away about any possible transfer. Speaking in a tense interview, he repeatedly pushed back on the idea that the case changes anything for him and, at one point, asked: \u201cShall we continue?\u201d<\/p>\n
The key issue he focused on was the period under investigation. City continue to deny the charges and are in the process of appealing, while the Premier League\u2019s case covers accounts from 2009 to 2018, years that long predate his move to Manchester.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe investigation covered 2009 to 2018,\u201d he said during the conversation with Norwegian broadcaster TV2 . \u201cIn 2009, I played for Bryne U-9s. In 2010, the U-10s. In 2011, the U-11s. 2012, the U-12s, 2012, the U-13s. Shall we continue? We don\u2019t need the whole list…\u201d<\/p>\n
He then continued through his own timeline, adding: \u201c2014, the U-14s,\u201d and later, \u201c2015, the U-15s and the national team. Then the U16s, I think. In 2016, I moved up to Bryne\u2019s first team, second team and youth team. In 2017, I went to Molde. In 2018, I was with Molde. The first team, Molde 2 and a bit with the youth team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Haaland also acknowledged the awkwardness of being asked to comment on a legal dispute between club and league. \u201cThis is a question I struggle to answer, because it\u2019s a legal battle between the Premier League and Manchester City,\u201d he said. \u201cAm I supposed to answer that? I don\u2019t really know. It\u2019s a difficult question to answer when I don\u2019t know that much about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Possible sanctions remain unresolved if the appeal fails. One theory is a major points deduction, with implications for this season and beyond, which could open the door to a wider exit of leading players. Even so, Haaland insisted his position has not changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be completely honest, I\u2019m focused on trying to perform for Manchester City,\u201d he said. \u201cA club I signed a five-year deal with in 2022, and a new nine-and-a-half-year deal in late 2024. I think that says everything about the matter. I\u2019m a City player and I\u2019m incredibly happy there.\u201d<\/p>\n
He finished by making clear that he was not interested in fuelling speculation. \u201cI understand that you want a little headline here,\u201d Haaland added, adopting that spiky tone once again, \u201cbut as I said I signed a long-term contract in 2024. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Haaland addressed City\u2019s case, dismissed transfer talk and stressed his long-term deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22481,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238],"tags":[59,182],"class_list":["post-22482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","tag-featured","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22482","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=22482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}