Erling Haaland is only good enough for Real Madrid bench – Florentino Perez
Suraj Radia
- Updated: 16 Jun 2022 16:09 BST
- 3 min read
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has insisted the club have no regrets missing out on Erling Haaland because he would have only been on the bench behind Karim Benzema.
Manchester City beat a host of clubs to the signing of Haaland including Real, who were initially considering the Norwegian before turning their attention to Kylian Mbappe.
However, Mbappe's decision to renew his contract with Paris Saint-Germain meant Real missed out on both their major striker targets, although Perez claimed a move for Haaland was never an option.
Perez said: "The Mbappe deal didn’t create any problem with the Haaland deal, absolutely. We have Benzema, so it was impossible to have him with Karim.
"We can’t sign Haaland to stay on the bench. Haaland is an amazing, fantastic player."
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Perez also revealed he had heard suggestions that Haaland could have a release clause in his contract with City, although he admitted he didn't know whether those reports were true.
Was Haaland ever a real option for Madrid?
Haaland has penned a five-year contract with City after they activated his €60 million release clause at Dortmund, although agent fees and signing bonuses means the total fee is somewhere around €90m.
Madrid had considered the prospect of signing Haaland due to the relatively cheap clause for a player of his stature, however Mbappe was always thought to be their primary target.
The Spanish side reportedly had an agreement with Mbappe going back as far as last summer and they were expecting the Frenchman's signing to be relatively straight forward as he would have been a free agent.
But Mbappe instead made a last-minute u-turn and opted to continue with PSG, leaving Real red-faced and without a marquee forward signing.
🎙| Florentino Perez: “A player I wanted and couldn't get? I signed every player I wanted, the really good ones, I signed them ALL.” #rmalive pic.twitter.com/f5fn0E7c4I
— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) June 15, 2022
The club instead chose to pursue a move for Monaco's Aurelien Tchouameni and were able to agree a deal worth €100m for the 22-year-old, largely due to their unused 'striker fund'.
With Benzema still in prime form and Madrid being able to sign a world-class midfielder instead, the European champions may still end up having the last laugh.
