Manchester City Considers Legal Action Over Haaland Transfer Claims
Manchester City are weighing up legal action after a Real Madrid presidential candidate publicly vowed to sign Erling Haaland and even held up a Madrid shirt with the striker’s name on it live on television.
Enrique Riquelme, a 37-year-old renewable energy magnate attempting to unseat Florentino Perez, used prime-time airtime on Wednesday to make the kind of promise that electrifies a fanbase and infuriates rival clubs.
“He has a release clause and would like to join Real Madrid. If I become president, he will play for Real Madrid,” Riquelme declared, unveiling the Haaland shirt as a campaign prop.
The response from the Haaland camp and from Manchester City was immediate and emphatic.
A joint statement from Haaland’s father and agent dismissed the claim. City then went further, flatly rejecting the notion that their star striker has any such escape route in his contract or any intention of leaving on those terms.
“The stories which have emerged from Spain regarding the future of Erling Haaland are untrue,” the statement read. “There is no chance of this happening and there is no contractual clause to enable it.
“We are considering legal action for the use of our player image in this context.”
For City, this is not just transfer-market noise. It cuts to the heart of player control and image rights, and the club is clearly prepared to defend its position.
Riquelme, though, has built his entire campaign on bold promises and high-profile names. Haaland is only the headline act.
He also pledged to bring in City’s midfield metronome Rodri, openly identifying him as a cornerstone of his sporting project at the Bernabeu.
“He is a great player, in a position where Madrid need to strengthen,” Riquelme said. “We have spoken to his agent. We have to respect his club, but if I'm president he will play for Madrid. I will do everything possible.”
Those words will not go unnoticed in Manchester either. Rodri, like Haaland, is central to Pep Guardiola’s structure, and public courtship of two of City’s most important players underscores how aggressively Riquelme is pitching his vision to Madrid’s electorate.
This is no ordinary Real Madrid election. For the first time in 20 years, Perez faces a genuine challenger. After two seasons without a major trophy, unrest has grown in the stands at the Santiago Bernabeu, and the club’s long-serving president has been forced into a contest he usually avoids.
Just under 100,000 club members are eligible to vote on Sunday, 7 June, in an election Perez himself called to secure a fresh mandate and quiet the discontent. He remains the overwhelming favourite, but Riquelme has chosen a populist route to close the gap.
His campaign has been laced with giveaways and grand projects: a proposed “members’ city” for fans around the training base, and a promise to slash annual membership fees by up to 50% if Madrid fail to win the Champions League next season. It is football politics with a hard edge and a soft sell.
On the bench, Riquelme is pushing for change there too. He opposes Perez’s decision to bring back Jose Mourinho as manager, an appointment that can only be formally confirmed if Perez stays in power.
Riquelme and his team have instead hinted that Jurgen Klopp is their dream candidate. The former Liverpool manager, currently out of work, has been floated as the kind of figurehead who could lead a new sporting era.
When asked about Klopp in an interview with The Athletic last month, Riquelme kept his cards relatively close but did not hide his admiration. “Naturally, I would love for profiles of that calibre, and others like them, to coach this club,” he said.
So the picture is clear. On one side, Perez, the architect of the modern Real Madrid, leaning on continuity, institutional power and the promise of stability. On the other, Riquelme, younger, lavish with promises, brandishing shirts with superstar names and talking openly about poaching pillars of Manchester City’s project.
In Manchester, the issue now goes beyond election theatre. City must decide how far to push their legal threat, how fiercely to defend their players’ images and contracts in the face of such public courting.
In Madrid, the members will decide on Sunday whether Riquelme’s show of ambition is visionary or reckless.
