Agent to Manchester City striker Erling Haaland, Rafaela Pimenta, says Real Madrid is still the “dreamland” for all footballers.
Incredibly, Haaland has 33 goals for City this season, four more than any other player in the top five leagues in Europe. He has also broken numerous records.
The Norwegian international is currently playing at Etihad Stadium in the first year of a five-year contract, but he is still linked with a transfer to LaLiga powerhouse Real Madrid.
Haaland reportedly has a release clause in his contract that will allow him to join Madrid at the end of the upcoming season, but City manager Pep Guardiola previously denied those rumours.
But Haaland’s agent did little to quash talk of a future switch to the Spanish capital when asked about the 22-year-old’s future at the FT Business of Football Summit in London.
“There is the Premier League, and there is Real Madrid. Real Madrid has something of its own that makes it the dreamland for the players,” Pimenta said.
“Madrid keeps this magic going. They don’t have the league competition every week, but they do have the Champions League.”
Thank you for all the love and support. More to come! 🧘🏼♂️ #mancity pic.twitter.com/OYIl3UoNxE
— Erling Haaland (@ErlingHaaland) February 26, 2023
Haaland has previously said the attractiveness of playing under Guardiola at a club where father Alf-Inge once played was too much to turn down.
However, Pimenta suggested the former Borussia Dortmund star already knows which club he will join next.
“We have to make a plan, we need to have a goal,” she said. “Maybe we won’t achieve it, but if we don’t know where we’re going, then for sure we don’t get there.
“We make plans, yes, we make plans even if they are a 15-year-old. We cannot be sitting down and waiting.”
Haaland is one of a number of high-profile clients represented by Pimenta, along with the likes of Paul Pogba, Matthijs de Ligt, Marco Verratti and Ryan Gravenberch.
All of those players have either played in or been strongly linked with a move to the Premier League, which Pimenta feels is still the elite division in world football.
“When I started in this business, if I told [a player], ‘you’re moving to England’, they would ask me, ‘what did I do wrong?’,” she said.
“Now when we talk to players, and ask them what is their goal, they say the Premier League. They don’t say a team, City, Chelsea, Arsenal, they say ‘the Premier League’.
“This is the first time in 25 years that I hear so many players say I want to go to a league, not to a club. This is the place to be for an agent.
“An agent needs to be where a player wants to be. It’s a fantastic league. It’s so competitive, every game is a challenge, everyone wants to watch it.”