In a long interview with the Spanish daily AS, Rafael Pimenta, the very influential football agent and former partner of Mino Raiola who died in 2022, talks about Erling Haaland (22), whose interests she defends.
For the Brazilian lawyer, who is also that of the Frenchman Paul Pogba, the Manchester City striker under contract until 2027 is the most expensive man in the world.
It crushes all its competitors in terms of financial value.
"We made Pogba at 80 million and everyone said: 'It's incredible!'
Today, many players are worth a lot.
The top is Neymar's 222 million euros (from Barça to PSG in 2017, editor's note).
The numbers change.
For me, Haaland is worth a billion.
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🌙¡Buenas noches!
🗓️Esta es nuestra #PortadAS de hoy, 1 de
febrero 🗞️"Haaland vale 1000 millones" pic.twitter.com/bwz0vtWvY8
— Diario AS (@diarioas) February 1, 2023
There is no official support for this colossal sum.
On the Transfermarkt reference site, the Norwegian is valued at 170 million euros, which is below Kylian Mbappé (180 million) and far from a billion.
"Perhaps no one will pay for that, but that's the potential he has when he arrives at a club," said his agent.
With it comes fans, goals, sports scores, professionalism, digital content, notoriety, sponsors... If you put it all together, its value is an aggregate of many things.
But the price of a footballer is actually set by a club.
I know that nobody is going to pay 700 million for a player, but I am very clear that the value that Erling brings when he arrives at a club is immense, at least a billion euros.
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Haaland joined Manchester City last summer for 60 million euros, the amount of the release clause which appeared in his contract at Borussia Dortmund.
"I always say that one of my priorities as an agent is to offer the player what I call 'the key to the door'," continues Pimenta.
When the player goes to a club, I do everything to create the conditions for the key to the door to be in his hands.
If tomorrow you can't bear to be there anymore because you don't like it, or because you're poorly paid, or because your wife wants to live in Paris?
Well, are you leaving?
I don't like when my player is not free to decide.
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