MANCHESTER, England, June \u20604 (Reuters) – Manchester City are considering legal action after Real Madrid presidential candidate \u2060Enrique Riquelme said he would sign the Premier League club’s Norway striker \u200cErling Haaland if elected.<\/p>\n
Riquelme, a renewable energy entrepreneur challenging incumbent Florentino Perez, made the pledge during an appearance on Spanish television on Wednesday, where he held up a Real Madrid shirt bearing Haaland’s \u200bname. <\/p>\n
“The stories which have emerged from Spain regarding the \u2060future of Erling Haaland are \u2060untrue,” a City spokesperson said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
“There is no chance of this happening and \u2060there \u200cis no contractual clause to enable it. We are considering legal action for the use of our player’s image in this context.”<\/p>\n
Riquelme said Haaland, who \u2060scored 38 goals in all competitions last season, had \u200ba release clause and \u200cwanted to move to the Spanish club, adding that he would make \u2060the transfer a \u200bpriority if he wins Sunday’s election.<\/p>\n
A joint statement from Haaland’s father Alfie and the 25-year-old player’s agent Rafaela Pimenta swiftly rejected the suggestion, describing it as “not true”. <\/p>\n
Riquelme added he would \u2060try to sign City’s Spain midfielder Rodri, saying \u200bhe had spoken to the player’s agent and would “do everything possible” to bring the Ballon d’Or winner to Madrid.<\/p>\n
The remarks come against the backdrop of Real’s presidential election, the \u2060first in two decades in which Perez is not running unopposed, after the club’s two seasons without a major trophy. <\/p>\n
Voting is scheduled for Sunday, with around 100,000 club members eligible to take part.<\/p>\n
Haaland had the option to join Real in 2022 when \u200bhe left Borussia Dortmund but chose City, where his \u2060father played.<\/p>\n
While the striker, who won the Premier League Golden Boot for the third \u200btime in four seasons, said he would like to \u200cplay for Real one day, there has \u200bbeen no suggestion he is unhappy at City. He signed a new 9-\u00bd-year contract in January 2025.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Lori Ewing; Editing by Ken Ferris)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MANCHESTER, England, June \u20604 (Reuters) – Manchester City are considering legal action after Real Madrid presidential candidate \u2060Enrique…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,6675,85],"class_list":["post-714724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-na","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}