For a long time it appeared as if Real Madrid were trying to pull of a remarkable move for both Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe, but in the end, they the ended up with neither. Real Madrid very clearly wanted to sign Mbappe but President Florentino Perez claimed that it was impossible for the club to sign Haaland.
Perez spoke to Spanish television programme El Chiringuito late last night and was asked whether the prioritisation of Mbappe had any effect on Real Madrid’s efforts to sign Haaland.
“Mbappe deal didn’t create any problem with Haaland deal, absolutely. We have Benzema, the best forward in the world, 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.”
??"HAALAND era INCOMPATIBLE con BENZEMA, que es el MEJOR DELANTERO del MUNDO"
? "NO le íbamos a FICHAR para tenerlo en el BANQUILLO"
? FLORENTINO lo explica con @jpedrerol en #ChiringuitoFlorentino. pic.twitter.com/0NdWXsPIUj
— El Chiringuito TV (@elchiringuitotv) June 15, 2022
Haaland ended up signing for Manchester City before Mbappe announced his decision and there is no real way of knowing exactly what effect that had on their plans. Real Madrid’s outlay for Mbappe would not have been insignificant though and bringing both to the club would’ve meant a historic spend even by Real Madrid’s standards.
The problem for Perez was not missing out on Haaland, but rather the public and last-minute manner of Mbappe’s refusal. Paris Saint-Germain managed to strike an emotional and reputational blow, which based on Perez’s comments, Los Blancos still haven’t recovered from.
