Manchester City staff have been openly mocking Manchester United’s £52m deal for Fred after signing Erling Haaland for a smaller fee, according to reports.
The Premier League champions confirmed that they had secured an agreement in principle with Dortmund to sign Haaland this summer – and they have landed a bargain in the process.
Interested teams had until the end of April to trigger a release clause initially reported to be worth €75m (£64m), but in the end City have paid only €60m (£51m) for one of the most exciting strikers in world football.
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According to ESPN, the fee has thrilled City’s hierarchy – who believe he would have cost upwards of €200m (£170m) on the open market – and prompted a few barbs in the direction of their rivals.
The price for Haaland – who has netted 85 goals in 88 games for Dortmund – comes in at around £800,000 less than the £52m fee United paid for Fred in 2018, and that has led to jokes inside the club at the Brazilian’s expense.
City had actually been looking at the midfielder when he was still at Shakhtar Donetsk – having signed Fernandinho from the club five years earlier – though were not ready to pay as much as United.
After a sketchy start to his career at United, Fred has impressed more recently and will be one of few players to come out of United’s poor campaign with his reputation still intact, having laid on four goals and netted as many himself in 27 league games.
Meanwhile, ESPN also claim that United helped City’s deal for Haaland by buying Jadon Sancho from Dortmund last summer.
Due to a clause inserted as part of his move from the Etihad to Germany in 2017, City were paid €12m (£10m) – around a fifth of the fee for Haaland – and that cash injection helped them put together a financial package for Haaland quickly.
The first instalment the Bundesliga side will receive for Haaland, on July 1, will only be around £34million.
The true cost of the player is likely to be higher than that, though, with a huge signing-on fee and agents’ fee taking it closer to nine figures, while Haaland is set to become Man City’s second highest-paid player behind Kevin De Bruyne.
