Manchester City is one of the world's most successful football teams. In the last two decades, and mainly since the days of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and City Football Group (CFG), the Citizens have been dominating English and European football. The financial injection they've received from the new ownership helped form one of the best squads in the world of football.
Do not get us wrong, having the finances to buy the best players is only a part of the equation. What City did differently is that they never saved money on having the best coaches. The recent history of Manchester City is painted by Catalan influence, mainly since the appointment of Pep Guardiola. The Spanish manager is the world's most prestigious coach, and this is not even debatable. No one comes close to Pep in terms of men and tactical management. The Pep era in City was blessed with trophies. In addition to multiple league titles, FA Cups, and EFL Cups, Pep brought the long-coveted Champions League title to Manchester.
Of course, none would be possible without some of the world's best players. Manchester City has plenty of those. From goalkeeper to attack, City has more than average depth. They're superb in all phases of the game. Starting with Ederson, Kyle Walker, John Stones, Ruben Dias, Mateo Kovacic, Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri, Phil Foden, and Bernardo Silva, and at the top of the City's pyramid sits Erling Haaland.
Erling Haaland's contract situation indicates that the City is in good hands. The Norwegian superstar has signed a new contract with the club that will keep him in the club for the foreseeable future. We're talking about a contract lasting until 2034. That's 9.5 years. After Chelsea, City is the next club to start giving players long contracts. Haaland deserved him, as he is one of the best strikers in the game. The 24-year-old joined from Borussia Dortmund in 2022 and never looked back.
During his first season, Haaland was at the forefront of City's run to win the famous treble when they won the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League. During his first season in the PL, Haaland netted 36 league goals and 52 overall, winning the PL Golden Boot and presenting himself as one of the top strikers. No other PL player has scored 52 goals in a season before Haaland. Even today, when he's trailing Mo Salah by a goal (at the moment of writing this article), he's seen as a favourite for the Golden Boot by Stake.com and other sports betting outlets.
Scoring goals never goes unnoticed, nor does it go without rewards. Erling won the PFA Player of the Year prize in his inaugural PL season, the Premier League Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year, and the Football Writers' Association Player of the Year award. For Haaland, the debut season was only the beginning of his great Manchester adventure. He followed it up with a second season that saw him being the top scorer in the PL once again while helping City win their fourth consecutive title, a feat never achieved.
Last season also showed that the former Molde prodigy might be injury-prone despite scoring 27 league goals. During the 2023/24 season, the Norwegian striker spent two months sidelined. During that stretch, rumours started to circle that the year of Haaland's dominance might be shortened due to this build, style of play, and the roughness of the football on the island.
The stories of Haaland's demise in the fitness sense were exaggerated. The Norwegian came back stronger than ever this year. Erling has played in every league game for City, and we're talking about 21 games and 16 goals to his name in the league and another 6 games and 5 goals in the CL. One could argue that this year, Haaland had attitude issues, as he showed after the Manchester City duel against Arsenal. Still, as far as fitness and injuries go, Haaland has been blessed by the gods of medicine as he hasn't skipped a match this year in the two most important competitions for City.
Two and a half years ago, when Haaland joined City in a transfer worth £51m, he was expected to be the name on everyone's lips when City was playing. So far, he is proving those who thought so right. He's been playing great every year since his Molde days to today, and if you're into online sports betting, you can wager that Haaland is going to win the Ballon d'Or in one of the next few years.
We can say this with certainty as it was evident even in 2022 that City has gotten a real gem with Haaland upon his transfer from Dortmund. People were arguing that his reliance on his left foot could be an issue, as he was called a one-dimensional striker who only uses one leg. While being a strong left-footed player, Haaland is not one to leave his opponents without guessing. Due to their desire to improve from his teenage days, it is well-known that Erling has been training his right foot in the training sessions since his Dortmund days, looking to add another dimension to his scoring arsenal.
Today, after two and a half years in Manchester, we can say that Haaland has been improving year in and year out. He was the main contributor to every success the citizens had during that period. The influence that he has on his team and on the game itself has been unparalleled. No one has been expecting that he will become an even better player and a more prolific striker since his move from the Bundesliga to the Premier League. Nowadays, he dominated every competition, from the Norwegian league with Molde to the Austrian first league with RB Salzburg to the Bundesliga and eventually the PL.
With everything we've said, you can already understand that Erling fully deserves his new contract. Let's put the numbers out to add a bit of perspective for those who haven't been closely watching this lad from Bryne.
In the 2022/23 season, Haaland has played in 53 games. He scored 52 goals and assisted 9 more. It took him 4131 minutes to achieve those stats. Accomplishments such as those carry accolades your way, so Haaland finished his inaugural Premier League season with Premier League, FA Cup, and UEFA Champions League team trophies and PFA Player of the Season, Premier League Player of the Season, Premier League Young Player of the Season, FWA Footballer of the Year, Premier League Golden Boot, and UEFA Men'sMen's Player of the Year on individual level.
In 2023/24, he toned a bit with goals and assists but also in matches played. Yet, he was more than outstanding. In 45 games, Erling has amassed 38 goals and 6 assists, but only in 3745 minutes and that needs to be taken into account as he played almost 500 minutes less. One could argue that because Haaland wasn't up to the top standards he set in his debut seasons, City only won two trophies in the Premier League and UEFA Super Cup. Individually, he was overlooked as he only won the Premier League Golden Boot, the Gerd Muller Trophy, and BBC Sports Personality World Sport Star of the Year.
City is having one of the worst seasons in recent memory. The season started well, and the team won the Community Shield. The first few matches showed us the good old City dominating possession and opponents. Still, it all fell apart after City's Ballon d'Or winner, Rodri, got injured. We're only 22 PL matches into the year, and City is trailing Liverpool by 12 points, and the Reds have a game in hand. While the title aspirations can be forgotten, Haaland is still raking in goals as we're used to. So far, in the 2024/25 season, he has played 29 matches, which resulted in 22 goals and 1 assist. The way things stand now, he will again be in the race to win the Golden Boot despite having Salah a lovely season, too.
While City's PL season might be as good as over as far as the title run goes, they are still in contention to win the FA Cup and the Champions League. Before these competitions continue, the City has decided to put its future in safe hands or legs. Thus, they have negotiated a contract extension with Erling Haaland, tying him to the club for the foreseeable future. If everything goes according to plan, Haaland might just finish his career in the blue colour of Manchester City's City's shirt. When his contract runs out in 2034, Haaland will be 34 years old. We're sure he will still dominate, but is it a massive show of respect for past achievements and future expectations? Now that you know he's been rewarded with a new deal let us break down the contract.
As we said, Erling Haaland has just signed a new ten-year contract. The contract is signed in a way that counts as it started at the start of the 2024/25 season and ends in 2034. So, while in essence a 9.5-year contract, it is dubbed a 10-year commitment of Haaland to the City for promotional purposes. The City is currently facing uncertainty regarding the 115 charges they are facing. Haaland's future is now set in stone.
A ten-year commitment is a viable move for the top brass of City's people, considering that the prolific striker has scored 111 goals in 125 games for the club. At this point, it is evident that Haaland is one of the top strikers in the world. His old contract had a clause, but it has been replaced with a new one.
Erling has signed a one-of-a-kind deal in football, as ten-year contracts are a novelty in this sport. The American owners in Chelsea have started a trend. City was eager to continue it with one of their top players. With his new deal, Haaland has become one of the top-paid players in Europe. His 9.5-year deal is worth $301,163,395.00 gross over the ten years. This translates to a yearly salary of $31,701,410.00. All of you who love to play Football Manager and only see salaries as weekly amounts must know that Erling Haaland will earn $609,642.50 a week from now on.
While this deal is record-breaking in more ways than one regarding what footballers earn, both Haaland and his colleagues are still far behind some other athletes. For example, Juan Soto earns $980,769.23 per week, while Shohei Ohtani earns $1,346,153.85. Both are baseball players. NFL superstar Patrick Mahomes earns $865,384.62 per week, while Jayson Tatum is at $1,207,307.69. Despite athletes competing in America's most significant leagues, such as the NBA, NHL, NFL, and MLB, earning a lot, the man topping them all is another footballer - Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese Ace is a legendary player and one of the top earners in the world of sports. He earns $3,958,500.00 a week playing for Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia.
Either way, we are sure that Haaland is satisfied with the contract he has just signed. After all, while not comparable to CR7, he still earns more than Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbape. With money now in the bank, Haaland and his teammates can focus on the upcoming matches Manchester City has on schedule, some of which can be detrimental to the rest of City's season.
While the title might be out of reach, we wouldn't write City just yet, and we're sure Pep and the boys are thinking the same way. In addition to league challenges in the next few weeks, Manchester City will be facing Chelsea and Arsenal. The Citizens will also be playing PSG and Club Brugge in the Champions League and Leyton Orient in the FA Cup. We're sure City's new $609,642.50-a-week forward will be the top player on the field.
