Manchester City have reportedly been dealt a blow in their pursuit of Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland this summer.
According to the Daily Mirror, Real Madrid are now stepping up their efforts to beat City to the Norway international, who has become their priority after a U-turn from Kylian Mbappe over his future.
City urgently need someone like Haaland to come in and give them an elite goal-scorer to finally replace the legendary Sergio Aguero, but it seems the fact that Mbappe could now stay at Paris Saint-Germain is bad news for Pep Guardiola’s side.
If Real miss out on Mbappe, it makes sense that they could now turn to Haaland as their priority target up front, and it seems like City will end up being the big losers here.
Haaland has a sensational scoring record since joining Dortmund, netting 80 goals in 84 appearances in all competitions so far, and one can only imagine how many he’d keep scoring with even better players around him at City or Madrid.
It would have been great to see the 21-year-old moving to the Premier League ahead of his peak years, but it seems like that is now looking less likely.
If there’s any comfort for City, it’s that Haaland has shown some signs of becoming a bit injury-prone this season, so perhaps they’d do better to invest their money elsewhere.
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