Both La Liga giants are working on the basis that Erling Haaland’s future at Manchester City is less cast-iron than it looks, according to a report published on 15 September by TEAMtalk and picked up widely across the transfer press the following day.

The claim, sourced to people close to the two Spanish clubs rather than to Manchester City or Haaland’s camp, is that Barcelona and Real Madrid both view the summer of 2027 as a plausible window to move for the 26-year-old, and that they believe there are still routes out of his contract that City insist do not exist.

Fabrizio Romano and David Ornstein, the two reporters usually first with confirmed Haaland news, have not backed the story.

What the report actually says

TEAMtalk’s core line is that there is “an understanding between Haaland and City’s hierarchy that if and when” the striker decides he wants a new challenge, the club would be prepared to look at the situation rather than shut a departure down. The outlet frames 2027 as the moment both Spanish clubs are targeting, with next summer viewed as too soon given Haaland’s focus at the time was the 2026 World Cup with Norway.

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Barcelona’s interest is described as a long-standing admiration dating back to Haaland’s breakthrough at Red Bull Salzburg. Real Madrid, meanwhile, are said to see him as a possible partner for Kylian Mbappé at the Santiago Bernabéu.

Crucially, the report does not name a fee. A separate write-up in Moldovan outlet Logos Press put a figure of around €175m on any move, citing an estimated release clause for clubs from other leagues, but that number is not in TEAMtalk’s original piece.

The contract City point to

The awkward fact for any Spanish approach is a piece of paper signed on 17 January 2025. Manchester City tied Haaland to a nine-and-a-half-year deal running until the summer of 2034, with wages of around £500,000 per week, and stated at the time that the new contract carried no release clauses and that any previous ones had been removed.

TEAMtalk’s sources dispute that reading, arguing that “options” remain within Haaland’s deal. Manchester City have not commented on those specific claims.

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Why now, and why 2027

Barcelona will begin the 2026/27 season without Robert Lewandowski, who left the club as a free agent at the end of last season after Barcelona declined to offer him a new contract on terms he was willing to accept. A number nine of Haaland’s profile is, on paper, exactly what Hansi Flick’s side no longer have on the books.

For Real Madrid, the reported attraction is different. With Mbappé already established as the focal point of the attack, adding Haaland would be about doubling down at the top of the pitch rather than filling a hole.

Haaland himself has spent the opening weeks of the 2026/27 campaign doing what he usually does. The Hard Tackle’s syndication of the TEAMtalk story notes he had scored six goals in his first six appearances of the season across all competitions, a return in keeping with the 168 goals in 204 games he has posted since joining Manchester City in 2022.

His summer, meanwhile, was defined by Norway’s run to a first ever World Cup quarter-final at the 2026 tournament in North America, where he scored twice against Brazil in the last 16 before Norway went out 2-1 to England in Miami on 11 July.

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No bid, no fee, no timetable

Nothing in the TEAMtalk report constitutes a formal approach, a bid, a price or a timetable. It is, at this stage, a mapping of intent by two clubs that would like to sign one of the game’s most in-demand strikers if the opportunity ever emerges.

Haaland’s contract still has eight years to run. Manchester City’s public position is that the release clauses are gone. Any move in the summer of 2027 would require both of those things to bend.

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