Haaland's price goes through the roof
The Real Madrid target scored again in the Champions League, taking his tally this season to 23. Salzburg's accountants are rubbing their hands.
Erling Haaland continues to stun all of European football with his goals... and his price tag is rising fast too. The Norwegian is already a Real Madrid target, with the Spanish club keen to continue their new policy of signing the brightest young talents before they've fully hit the big time, but in the case of the Red Bull Salzburg 19-year-old they may have already left it too late.
Haaland making history already
Against Napoli on Tuesday night in the Champions League Haaland scored yet again, to maintain his position as top scorer this season in the competition with seven goals, and it's hard to say he's not already fully arrived. His goal in Italy saw him make history, becoming the highest-scoring teenager in a single Champions League campaign.
Salzburg are watching him exploding him with the delight of someone uncorking a bottle of fine champagne after realising their lottery ticket has every single winning number. Haaland cost them five million euros, his price is already several multiples of that, and rising.
Haaland has scored 23 goals so far this season already, between the Austrian League, the Austrian Cup and the Champions League. Not even Lewandowski can match the Norwegian's scoring rate, having scored 21 so far, and that's with the incredible record of notching in every single league and Champions League match he's played in, and only failing to score in one solitary outing (in the German Cup).
"We're talking about Haaland being a very special footballer player", says his coach at Salzburg, Jesse Marsch. Very, very special. He's scored in his four Champions League matches: seven goals with just 11 shots. He had no bother taking the responsibility to slot home a penalty against Napoli and also scored at legendary Anfield, scoring Salzburg's third to make it 3-3 at the time in what ended up being a 4-3 defeat to Liverpool.
Big achievements for a player who's not yet 20 and is still growing physically. He even manages to celebrate his goals like a veteran: telling the Napoli fans to calm down after his penalty.
With Odegaard for Norway and Real Madrid
The Norwegian press are having a field day, imagining a beautiful future for Haaland playing up front for Norway (and maybe Real Madrid too) and receiving silky passes from Odegaard in the midfield. "The dream duo" headlined VG, one of the country's main papers, recently. Added to this is the fact that he's now a favourite for the Golden Boy, the Ballon d'Or for Under-21s. Yet another reason to send his price tag in the stratosphere.
Transfermarkt's most recent valuation for Haaland, dated 3 September, was 12 million euros, a figure that now seems ridiculous. Exactly what he could be worth when Salzburg do decide to sell him will depend on his up-coming performances, but nobody would say 60 million euros sounds crazy right now in a market where Real Madrid paid forty-five million for Rodrygo and sixty million for Jovic.
If Real Madrid do want to sign Haaland at somewhat of a reasonable price it looks like they had better get a move on, with more clubs every day making their interest in the Norwegian known. The latest, Juventus... Haaland is the man everyone wants to be linked with right now.