Real Madrid’s presidential candidate Enrique Riquelme made a bold move on Wednesday, promising to sign Erling Haaland and Rodri if he is elected.
Riquelme is currently competing against Madrid’s longstanding president Florentino Perez in an election scheduled for Sunday.
The 37-year-old entrepreneur also announced that if he wins the elections then club legend Raul will become sporting director, but his biggest statement and the centre of his campaign promise is that he will bring Haaland to the Bernabeu.
To underline his confidence, he also signed a notarised personal guarantee that if he fails to deliver Haaland, he will cover the membership fees of all Real Madrid members next season.
“Haaland has a release clause, and he wants to come to Madrid,” Riquelme said. On Rodri, he said: “He’s a great player, in a position where Madrid need to strengthen. We’ve spoken to his agent. We have to respect his club, but if I’m president he’ll play for Madrid.”
So what is going on here, and is a Haaland move to Madrid feasible?
Why has Riquelme promised to sign Haaland from Manchester City?
Big claims like these are actually quite normal in Madrid’s (and even Barcelona’s) elections. Perez has led the club for most of the last two decades and he has significant weight and influence. If Riquelme is to stand even the slightest chance of defeating the 79-year-old, he knows that he needs to offer something remarkable to sway emotional Madrid supporters.
Perez himself won his first tenure at Madrid in 2000 against the odds by making an audacious claim to sign Luis Figo from rivals Barcelona. He also put his wealth behind it by promising to pay Madrid members’ season tickets if Figo did not sign. So to an extent, Riquelme is taking a page off Perez’s notebook.
Madrid’s president did eventually pull off a massive coup to sign Figo from Barcelona in 2000 after he was elected. Can the same happen here with Haaland?
Can City’s Norwegian goal machine join Madrid?
There is some logic behind the promise. Madrid have admired Haaland for years. The club explored the possibility of signing him while he was at Borussia Dortmund but ended up prioritising a pursuit of Kylian Mbappe.
Even after Haaland’s move to City, his name has remained part of discussions inside the club as a future centre-forward signing. The Norwegian’s goalscoring record is impeccable and his profile fits the type of global superstar the club traditionally target.
But it seems far-fetched though that Riquelme can match Perez’s 2000 feat and bring Haaland to the Bernabeu this summer. The Norwegian is under contract until 2034, and while he has a release clause, it is not active until 2029.
Haaland’s current contract is also extremely lucrative, even by Premier League standards, and while Pep Guardiola has left City this summer and the Norwegian is no longer bound by the great man’s gravitational pull, it is unrealistic that he would consider a move away the same summer.
The player’s representatives responded to Riquelme’s claims quickly enough, and they were dismissive. Haaland’s father Alfie Haaland and his agent Rafaela Pimenta issued a joint statement that described the speculation as “all very entertaining but not true”.
“We wish all the best for both candidates in the Madrid elections,” the pair said.
In the next year or two, however, it is far from dismissible. Enzo Maresca is set to replace Guardiola at the Etihad this summer, and if Haaland is disillusioned under the Italian’s management, there is a possibility that he agrees to a move to Spain, taking the path that many elite players in the past have taken, from a smaller club to a top level English club, before taking the final step to either Madrid or Barcelona.
City have shown in the past that they will not stop a player from leaving if their heart is no longer at the club. Julian Alvarez’s move to Atletico Madrid is a great example of it. However, such a move would likely be incredibly expensive and possibly even unaffordable for Madrid, given Haaland’s contract status.
