Mino Raiola has moved to clarify comments he made this week regarding Erling Haaland’s future, insisting it is not a foregone conclusion that the striker will leave Borussia Dortmund next year.
Haaland, who has scored 51 Bundesliga goals in 52 appearances since making his Dortmund bow last year, is already one of the world’s leading goalscorers.
Among players in Europe’s top five leagues, only Bayern Munich star Robert Lewandowski (100) has scored more goals than Haaland (74) across all competitions since January 18, 2020, when he first played for BVB.
The 21-year-old is rumoured to be a target for Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona and the two Manchester clubs, with reports suggesting he has a €75million buy-out clause that will kick in at the end of the season.
Dortmund’s chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke has described those claims as “rumour” and would not confirm the clause.
In an interview with Sport1 published on Thursday, Raiola claimed: “We have been thinking about his future for two years. We have clear ideas about where he should go and, of course, we look at what the market will offer.
“With a player like him, we can influence the market, we will not be influenced.
“I changed the transfer market and today we agents have created a new game alongside football: the transfer market. Today two days a week we talk about football, in the other five about the transfer market.”
A second part of the interview, published on Friday, had Raiola naming four clubs – Bayern, Madrid, Barca and Manchester City – as the only teams that could afford to buy the Norway international.
However, Raiola on Saturday issued a statement aiming to clear up his quotes.
“I want to clarify the following about the Sport1 interview,” a post on his official Twitter account read.
“The four clubs I mentioned about Haaland’s future were just an example to say that, when he leaves, he will go to one of the top 15 European clubs.”
Raiola also stressed Haaland may well stay at Dortmund for another season.
“Now Erling’s focus is solely on football, there are no negotiations with any club,” Raiola’s statement continued.
“And I reaffirm what I said – it’s not a sure thing he will leave this summer [2022 off-season], maybe it will be the one after that.”
Haaland, who has only recently returned from injury, could not help Dortmund to victory against Bochum on Saturday, with Julian Brandt rescuing a 1-1 draw for Marco Rose’s team, who are six points behind Bundesliga leaders Bayern.