Manchester City star Erling Haaland may have just become the most coveted footballer on Earth.
It's safe to say that the Norwegian striker has been a success in English football, netting 117 goals in his first 137 matches in the Premier League and starting the 2026/27 season with seven goals in seven matches for Manchester City.
But should anything happen to the Sky Blues, would he be available for a set fee?
Erling Haaland's Manchester City contract revealed
City were this week found guilty of all charges relating to serious breaches of the Premier League's financial rules, as a Premier League statement confirmed that they had “arranged ‘sham’ contracts” and “concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators”.
According to previous reports, Haaland had a £150 million release clause inserted into the contract that he originally signed when he arrived at Eastlands from Borussia Dortmund, though that reportedly increased to £200m for English rivals.
Since then, the Scandi robot has actually renewed with City, signing a whopping nine-and-a-half-year extension in January of last year that kept him in Manchester until 2034.
According to Sky Sports, Haaland saw a pay rise from the original £400,000-per-week deal he was previously earning – making him the highest-paid player at the club – while removing any previous release clauses and giving the 26-year-old the longest contract of any player in the division, surpassing Cole Palmer's deal at Chelsea, which expires in 2033.
A new report by Marca, meanwhile, says that there is no relegation clause in Haaland's current deal and that “any potential departure would have to take place through a negotiation between the parties or through some contractual condition that has not been made public”.
This could therefore open a can of worms, should City be forcibly relegated – with City feasibly asking Haaland to see out his contract in the lower leagues, rather than selling their prize asset – and speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, leading sports barrister Paul Gilroy KC addressed the issue.
“Every contract of employment, whether it's a footballer or someone who works in a shop, has got an implied term in it: in other words, it's not written down,” Gilroy said. “And the implied term we're talking about here is the term of trust and confidence.
“So if I work for you, you and I must have sufficient trust and confidence in each other to enable that relationship to work. If you don't trust me, or I don't trust you, or if you call me a liar and a thief on Tuesday, I can't work for you on a Wednesday - trust and confidence.
“Now, a player could say, ‘You have breached the implied term of trust and confidence. You are my employer, you have acted in breach of that term, and that entitles me to say I'm ripping up my contract and I'm walking out’.”
Haaland is worth €220m, according to Transfermarkt. City head to Liverpool when Premier League action resumes.
