BARCELONA – Barcelona will insist on signing Erling Haaland after Joan Laporta’s meeting last week with the player’s father and the player’s agent, but several sources admitted to ESPN that today “I see very hard” that an agreement can be concluded concluded for Borussia Dortmund striker.
The Barcelona president is excited about the possibility of getting the promising Norwegian striker to sign with the Catalan club. However, the high competition for its signing and the delicate economic situation the Catalan entity is going through due to the COVID-19 pandemic can frustrate everything.
Laporta met for more than two hours with Mino Raiola and the footballer’s father, Alf-Inge, to establish the basis for future discussions. However, on the same day, they also had a meeting with Real Madrid representatives and several Premier League teams are at hand.
At the economic level, it must be remembered that Barcelona’s debt amounts to almost 1,200 million euros and the club is obliged to reduce the salary table with the departure of the players next summer. Laporta, on the day he was appointed president, assured that he should make courageous decisions in the near future, which is why he expects a busy summer.
In the Camp Nou offices, he believes that the next transfer window will be similar to the last one, in which Barcelona brought out important players with very high salaries such as Luis Suárez, Ivan Rakitic and Arturo Vidal.
Despite all this, Laporta continues to work side by side with Mateu Alemany, the football area director, Ronald Koeman, the team’s coach, and Ramon Planes, the technical secretary, knowing that in the summer of 2022 Haaland has a 75 million exit clause. euro.
Borussia will ask for 180 million euros for Haaland’s freedom this summer, while Raiola described as “false” the information that claimed to have requested a token of 30 million for the player, as well as a transfer bonus of 40 million, half for the player. the father and the other half for the attacker’s agent.
Haaland also has Premier League contenders. Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United would be in the race with Manchester City, although Pep Guardiola warned last week that “with these prices we will not buy any striker. It is impossible, we cannot afford it”.
Returning to Barcelona, Koeman continues to insist on signing Memphis Depay from Olympique Lyonnais, who is free this summer and will arrive for free after the Barça club tried to sign him last October without success.
Eric Garcia’s name is also on the table. Negotiations are progressing well, but they are not completely closed, although at Barça they are “optimistic”.