BEVERLY HILLS, April 02, (THEWILL) – On Thursday, Carmine “Mino” Raiola, the Dutch-Italian football super-agent representing some of the biggest names in world football including Zlatan Ibrahimović, Paul Pogba, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Marco Verratti, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Matthijs de Ligt and Mario Balotelli, arrived in Madrid to discuss another player he represents: Erling Haaland.
As Haaland’s agent, Raiola met with Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez about the club’s interests in his client. Earlier in the day, Raiola had the same discussions with FC Barcelona’s new president Joan Laporta.
Also present at both meetings was Alf-Inge Rasdal Haaland, the player’s father, who represented Norway in his active professional football career as a midfielder and a defender, with 32 caps to his name. He notably played in the Premier League with Nottingham Forest, Leeds United and Manchester City.
His son, the Borussia Dortmund goal machine, is currently one of the hottest commodities in Europe that his prospects of remaining in the Bundesliga thins out by the day as all the top teams in Europe are rolling over themselves in the sprint to get his signature and acquire for themselves his free-scoring skills.
However, more than anything particularly definitive, the meeting was described as merely “informative.” It allowed the parties involved: Raiola and Barca on the one hand, and the agent and Real, on the other, to figure out what kind of situation the other party was ready to accept for the young man’s talents.
In other words, Raiola and the older Haaland were out to discover what the two La Liga giants were willing to offer to add the Norwegian to their respective squads. His current German side Dortmund are rumoured to demand an offer of no less than €150 million before Haaland can leave.
With the meetings in Spain over, the next port of call for the pair of Haaland representatives is France, where they intend to do the same and listen to prospective offers for the services of the impressive youngster.
Laporta harbours incredible interests in bringing the immensely talented and goal-hungry Haaland to the Camp Nou, so that they can fashion the team to make him the fulcrum of the new Barca Laporta plans to craft in his second term as club president at the Catalans.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
