Life couldn’t be much better for Erling Haaland.
He has just become a father for the first time, and bought a multi-million pound mansion in Cheshire. He has a Treble in the bag with Manchester City, continues to score goals despite his team’s recent troubles and has a long and successful future ahead of him.
One which will now be played out in the blue half of Manchester. Because on top of all of the above, Haaland now has a new 10-year-deal in his back pocket which makes him one of the highest paid footballers on the planet.
Haaland will be 34 come the end of it, by which time he wants to have smashed every goalscoring record known to man. Alan Shearer, look out.
Haaland is currently 61st on the all-time Premier League scoring charts with 79 goals in 87 appearances. He has a long way to go to dethrone Shearer’s long-standing record of 260.
But he also has a long time to hunt down the Geordie icon – and only an utter fool would bet against him doing it. “I’ll do my best to go after Alan Shearer,” said Haaland, with that ominous look in his eyes top flight defenders know only too well.
“I owe Manchester City everything. They committed to signing me, committed to signing a new deal with me. The least I can do is anything I can to perform as best as possible. To make City a better club, a better team, and to help the club perform in the best way possible.”
If that doesn’t send a shiver down the spine of all City’s rivals, then it’s impossible to fathom what will. It’s understood club bosses, including director of football Txiki Begiristain and chief executive Ferran Soriano opened negations with Haaland last season.
The talks were kept top secret, with only a handful of people privy to what was going on. Even Guardiola himself was left surprised when Begiristain revealed to him the staggering length of the deal handed down to the Norwegian.
Begiristain is leaving City at the end of this season, and this will be his parting gift to the club. “I’m good at keeping secrets,” added Haaland, “It’s a bit crazy, but I also like a bit of crazy, so it’s fine for me!”
Haaland’s not wrong. City’s decision to commit £260m to Haaland will bring it’s rewards, in terms of goals and probably more trophies.
But it’s crazy to consider Guardiola will be long gone before Haaland reaches the end of it, heaven forbid he could suffer a career threatening injury, while the footballing world waits with bated breath to discover the outcome into allegations the club broke spending rules.
City have refused to discuss if there is a clause in the new deal allowing Haaland to leave, should they end up getting punished with relegation. In the meantime, Guardiola is revelling in some good news for a change.
He said: “He chatted with me when it (the contract) was already done, and after that we congratulated each other. Because he’s making me a better manager. He comes from Norway, so I think maybe the weather here (in Manchester) is better.
“And he settled perfectly. I think what happened is because he loves the club, the people he is around, he loves the Premier League, he loves to be here with his wife and now he’s a father. “So I think he visualised that there is no better place that he could be right now in the next 10 years. And that’s why he and his family decided to do this step.”
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