Borussia Dortmund striker Haaland is one of Europe’s hottest prospects. His agent Mino Raiola travelled to Spain this week with the player’s father to discuss terms with Real Madrid and Barcelona about a potential transfer.
With Sergio Aguero leaving the Etihad Stadium at the end of the season, City have been linked with Haaland in British media reports and Guardiola will get a closer look at him on the pitch in Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final first leg.
Although City have been the biggest spenders in Europe over the last decade, they are yet to buy a player for a world record amount and their highest fee paid is 64 million pounds for Ruben Dias to Benfica in September.
Even though the prospect of breaking the nine-figure ceiling has not previously been on their agenda – although Guardiola hinted that could change going forward.
“Spending a lot of money on one player doesn’t give you an advantage to win,” he said. “Football is a team game, everyone makes a contribution.
“Competitions are not won by one player, it is every player. So far the club has decided not to spend close to £100million for a player.
“Maybe in the future, it will happen when the club decides it is necessary to improve the team for the next five to ten years but so far the organisation decides not to do it and that’s why we didn’t do it but maybe in the future.”
On Haaland’s qualities, Guardiola said: “All I can say is he is an exceptional striker for his age. The numbers speak for themselves. He’s a fantastic player, that’s all.
“In that age scoring that amount of goals is not easy to find. The numbers speak for themselves. When that happens it is because he can score right, left, counter, box, header. He’s a fantastic stirker. Everybody knows it. A blind guy can realise he is a good striker. It is not necessary to be a manager.”
Erling Haaland couldn’t contain his excitement walking through the Man City tunnel
If the sky blue backpack and face mask weren’t enough for Manchester City fans to get excited about on Monday, the aforementioned two words certainly were, as Erling Haaland strolled out into the sunshine at the home of the current Premier League leaders.
“Beautiful, huh?” The two words that Erling Haaland said to Borussia Dortmund team mate Jude Bellingham as he walked through the tunnel at the Etihad Stadium for training on Monday afternoon.
All smiles from @ErlingHaaland as he witnesses the Etihad Stadium for the first time! 🥰💙 @BVB pic.twitter.com/y6XLHdoTdD
— City Xtra (@City_Xtra) April 5, 2021
Unsurprisingly, Manchester City fans have reacted in their numbers at the clip, but really it shouldn’t be anything to be surprised about as we all know by now that Erling Haaland is a blue through and through.
Tuesday night presents Haaland with the perfect opportunity to prove his worth, and a perfect opportunity for Manchester City fans to potentially get a better look at a man who could soon be donning the Sky Blue shirt – but before then, there’s Mino Raiola to deal with, and that’s no small feat.
