Man City to pay €50m to snatch Erling Haaland rival from Chelsea

Tom Weber

• 6 Feb 2026 18:58 GMT
• 4 min read

News

Manchester City have been told that they must pay at least €50 million to snatch Strasbourg striker Joaquin Panichelli from Chelsea as they look for competition for Erling Haaland.

The Norwegian scoring machine has malfunctioned in recent weeks. Although Haaland netted against Galatasaray in the final Champions League league phase game, he has not found the back of the net in three Premier League fixtures.

In fact, the 25-year-old has only scored once in his last 10 domestic outings. He was not involved in any of the five goals Pep Guardiola's men put past Newcastle in the Carabao Cup, or in the 10 scored against Exeter, and a strike against Brighton is his only Premier League goal since December.

Current ETV

Erling Haaland

F (C)

Man City

Erling Haaland

F (C)

Man City

€150.9M

ETV Range

€135.8M - €166M

View full profile

This is quite unusual by his lofty standards and has certainly sparked a discussion at Man City. FootballTransfers exclusively revealed on Deadline Day that the Etihad club attempted a late swoop for Strasbourg striker Joaquin Panichelli to provide competition for Haaland.

This has since been confirmed by L'Equipe, who reported earlier this week that an unnamed Premier League side had made a last-minute enquiry for the Argentine.

Man City quoted €50m price

The BBC has added that Strasbourg quoted a €50 million price tag for their star striker, who has become all the more important due to Chelsea-bound captain Emmanuel Emegha reportedly being sidelined for the next six weeks. The Dutchman has not played since November.

The report notes that Strasbourg can only rebuff high-profile interest in their star players because of the backing by BlueCo. The flip side of this, of course, is that they are powerless when Chelsea come calling.

Indeed, it has been suggested that Panichelli could be the next Racing star to move to Stamford Bridge, although with Emegha already on his way to West London this summer, it remains to be seen if the Blues will indeed look to add the 23-year-old.

There may be an opening for Man City to return for Panichelli in the summer, especially if Omar Marmoush continues to struggle for regular minutes. The Egyptian had no shortage of suitors in January, and the interest will only increase if his situation does not change.

Football transfer news headlines today

EXCLUSIVE: Arsenal want to sign Sandro Tonali this summer

TRANSFER RUMOURS: Man Utd want Morgan Rogers as Romano confirms agreement

A 75% win rate, but plenty of concerns: Analysing Liam Rosenior's first month at Chelsea

Chelsea learn true cost of Rio Ngumoha transfer mistake

The FootballTransfers app

Check out FootballTransfers' new app for all of football's big storylines, transfer rumours and exclusive news in one convenient place directly on your mobile device.

The FootballTransfers app is available on Google Play and in the Apple App Store. Download here:

•Google Play

•App Store