Erling Haaland’s path out of Manchester City may be narrower than it is in most cases, but it has not been shut. Diario AS reports that the Norway striker still has a release clause in the contract that runs to 2034, a term that could let him leave for a significant fee once nearly half the deal has passed.
That matters now because Haaland remains one of the few players whose future can still move the market in Europe. The reported clause would not just affect Manchester City’s grip on one of its biggest stars; it would also keep haaland real madrid in the frame whenever the Spanish club turns back toward elite attacking targets.
The size of the buyout has not been disclosed, and the reported amount would fall as the contract ages, which keeps the timeline just as important as the money. City, meanwhile, has filtered to the press that the clause does not exist. That denial sits at the center of the story, because if there is no clause, there is no clean path; if there is, the value of waiting becomes part of the negotiation before any move even starts.
Haaland has been linked with Real Madrid for years, and he has never fully closed the door himself. In the summer of 2022, he chose Manchester City over Real Madrid on Mino Raiola’s advice, even as Madrid was fully focused on Mbappé. Since then, he has kept the possibility alive with the line, “¿El Madrid? Nunca se sabe qué puede deparar el futuro.”
The timing of the latest push is not accidental. On Wednesday, Enrique Riquelme said that if he is elected president, Haaland will wear white, only for the player’s father and his representative to deny the agreement he described. That public claim revived the old Madrid conversation at the same moment the contract issue resurfaced, turning a familiar rumor into a more specific question about whether a future bid would even be possible on the terms being discussed.
Any club trying to make that move would also have to fit the rest of the deal around Haaland’s 100% image rights and Madrid’s current wage structure, which already carries three galactic salaries in Mbappé, Vinicius and Bellingham. Vinicius is tied down until 2027, but even that does not remove the basic problem: a striker of Haaland’s size does not become available without forcing a club to decide how much it is willing to bend. The unresolved detail is the one that matters most now — the exact value and trigger point of the reported clause, because that is what would tell Madrid whether this is a dream for later or a plan that can be priced.
