Manchester City are considering legal action against Enrique Riquelme after the Real Madrid presidential candidate held up a Madrid shirt with Erling Haaland\u2019s name on the back during a TV appearance. Riquelme claimed a clause in the striker\u2019s contract would allow him to sign Haaland if elected.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Riquelme said Haaland, who agreed a record nine-and-a-half-year deal<\/a> in January 2025, wanted to join Real. The Spanish businessman also promised that Rodri would leave City for the record 15-times European champions.<\/p>\n \u201cHaaland has a release clause and he wants to come to Madrid,\u201d Riquelme said on El Hormiguero. The businessman is standing against the incumbent, Florentino P\u00e9rez, in Sunday\u2019s presidential elections.<\/p>\n City responded on Thursday by saying: \u201cThe stories which have emerged from Spain regarding the future of Erling Haaland<\/a> are untrue. There is no chance of this happening and there is no contractual clause to enable it. We are considering legal action for the use of our player image in this context.\u201d<\/p>\n Haaland\u2019s father, Alfie, and agent, Rafaela Pimenta, also denied Riquelme\u2019s claim. \u201cAll very entertaining but not true,\u201d they said. \u201cWe wish all the best for both candidates in the Real Madrid<\/a> elections.\u201d<\/p>\n Regarding Rodri, Riquelme said: \u201cHe\u2019s a top player, a Ballon d\u2019Or winner<\/a> in a position where Madrid needs to strengthen. If I become president, Rodri will play for Real Madrid, with all due respect to City.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have the track record of Florentino \u2013 I\u2019ve never been president. That\u2019s why I\u2019m committing myself to the two players I\u2019ve announced, backed by a personal notarised guarantee. If I fail to deliver, I will pay 100% of the annual dues of Madrid\u2019s 100,000 members.\u201d<\/p>\n Pep Guardiola\u2019s departure<\/a> as City\u2019s manager after a supremely successful decade may cause some players to consider their future. On Monday, Rodri said<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019m very calm, I know exactly where I stand, and I\u2019ll tell you that perhaps if there hadn\u2019t been a World Cup, things might be different.\u201d The 29-year-old\u2019s contract expires next summer.<\/p>\n City have had an initial bid for Elliot Anderson rejected by Nottingham Forest. Hugo Viana, the sporting director, is expected to return with an increased offer. The Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis, is believed to value the 23-year-old at about \u00a3100m, the club record fee City paid Aston Villa for Jack Grealish <\/a>in August 2021.<\/p>\n Anderson is in line to start in England\u2019s opening World Cup game against Croatia on 17 June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester City are considering legal action against Enrique Riquelme after the Real Madrid presidential candidate held up a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-714276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}