Manchester City deny Haaland sale rumours, weigh up suing Riquelme | OneFootball

City came out forcefully to deny the statements made by Enrique Riquelme, who promised that the Norwegian goal scorer would play for the white club if he won Sunday’s election. And they went even further: they are threatening legal action over the use of the player’s image.

Real Madrid presidential candidate Enrique Riquelme promised on El Hormiguero that Erling Haaland would arrive at the Bernabéu if he won next Sunday’s election. He pulled out a Madrid shirt with the number 9 and the Norwegian’s name on it, presented a personal notarized guarantee, and claimed that the striker “has a clause and wants to come to Madrid.” Manchester City’s response was immediate and devastating: “The stories that have emerged from Spain about Erling Haaland’s future are false. There is no possibility of this happening and there is no contractual clause that allows it.” And on top of that, they threatened legal action.

City was asked by Marca, and the club’s authorized source left no room for interpretation. In addition to denying any possibility of the striker leaving, the English club directly targeted the candidate over the use of their player’s image in an electoral context:

A reaction that raises the temperature of a presidential campaign that was already heating up.

Hours before City’s statement, Haaland’s father and agent had also denied the agreement, although Riquelme had not claimed that the Norwegian was already signed, only that he would arrive if he took over the presidency.

The mechanism Riquelme presented on El Hormiguero to back up his promises is unprecedented in Real Madrid’s history: a personal notarized guarantee. If he fails to deliver on the commitments to sign Haaland and Rodrigo Hernández, he promised to pay the full membership fee for the club’s 100,000 members out of his own pocket. The estimated outlay would be 12.3 million euros, calculated based on the fees for the different membership categories.

The move is not new. In 2000, Florentino Pérez promised to sign Luís Figo from Barcelona and pledged to pay every member’s season ticket if he failed. The initial skepticism did not last long: Figo arrived at the Bernabéu and Florentino won the election. Riquelme is trying to replicate that magic formula, but this time City has already shut the door before Sunday even arrives.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.