HAALAND PEP UP
City boss can land the first blow in chase for £130M star by knocking cash-strapped Dortmund out of Europe
MANCHESTER CITY can land a devastating blow in their bid to land Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland by knocking the German club out of the Champions League.
Pep Guardiola’s focus will be on reaching the semi-finals for the first time as City boss when Dortmund arrive at the Etihad for Tuesday night’s first leg.
But Dortmund’s resolve to resist all attempts to prise Norwegian goal-machine Haaland away from the Westfalenstadion in the summer would be severely damaged if they fail to qualify for the Champions League in the coming months.
The eight-time German champions have been in European football’s elite tournament in each of the last six seasons.
But they face a fight to finish in the top four of the Bundesliga at the end of a campaign which saw them sack coach Lucien Favre in December.
And Dortmund’s top-four hopes took a major hit yesterday as they lost at home to fourth-placed Eintracht Frankfurt – and are now seven points off the Champions League places.
Dortmund can expect another fierce challenge from Manchester when the Blues go in search of a replacement for Sergio Aguero.
City have made signing Haaland a priority after confirming their record goalscorer will be leaving the club when his contract expires.
City face competition from Manchester United, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Barcelona – and Dortmund have warned interested clubs that the bidding must start at
£130million. Haaland’s dad Alfie and agent Mino Raiola flew to Spain on Thursday to meet new Barca president Joan Laporte and his Real counterpart Florentino Perez.
Dortmund were aware of the trip – and the expectation is that the next port of call for Haaland’s advisers will be England.
The German club refused to budge on their £108m valuation of Jadon Sancho when United were interested in the England winger last summer.
Dortmund have shown by cashing in on players such as Ousmane Dembele, Pierre-emerick Aubameyang, Christian Pulisic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Ilkay Gundogan, Mats Hummels, Julian Wegl and Andriy Yarmolenko that they will sell if the price is right.
Dortmund’s stance on Haaland is complicated by a buy-out clause in the Norwegian’s contract, which will allow him to leave for £68m next year.
And the financial picture at the club is bleak as the effects of the pandemic take their toll.
Dortmund lose £2.6m on every home game played in a stadium usually packed with 81,000 fans.
The club posted a loss for the first time in 12 years last summer when they took a £40m hit during the first peak of the pandemic. And it was announced in December that Dortmund made a pre-tax loss of £26.2m in the first half of the season as turnover plunged by £50m.
That is expected to surpass £60m by the summer.
Cash reserves in the bank have been slashed from £24m to under £500,000, prompting the club to secure a £105m overdraft facility.
In January, interim boss Edin Terzic and a squad that also includes 17-year-old England midfielder Jude Bellingham agreed to Dortmund’s plea to take wage deferrals in a bid to ease the financial burden.
Dortmund are the only publicly traded club on the German stock exchange.
Shares have plunged by almost 50 per cent over the past 12 months.
And it was recently revealed that the sovereign wealth fund of Norway had ditched 800,000 shares and now retains just a nominal holding worth £50,000.
Dortmund have never lost to City, drawing 1-1 at the Etihad and then winning 1-0 in Germany when the clubs were drawn in the same Champions League group in 2012.
Terzic was working for the club as a scout in Jurgen Klopp’s backroom staff.
The 38-year-old was born in Germany and worked as Slaven Bilic’s assistant at West Ham between 2015 and 2017, having also been part of his coaching team at Besiktas and with the Croatia national team.
Terzic has won 10 and drawn five of his 21 games in charge.
But he will be replaced as coach by Marco Rose in the summer, the current coach of the Borussia Monchengladbach team having been beaten 4-0 on aggregate by City in the last round.