Until his unfortunate injury, the Norwegian had almost trebled his price tag thanks to his incredibly clinical finishing. He has everything needed to become one of the most expensive transfers in history and by far the most expensive in the Bundesliga.
When the coronavirus pandemic began to hit Europe hard, many experts said football would change forever. More packed schedules, frequent muscle injuries, empty stadia or at least with a reduced capacity and pay cuts have been a regular feature since March. That is when all major leagues shut down for three months before resuming the 2019-20 season. Only Ligue 1 ended the campaign prematurely.
Erling Haaland did not seem to be too troubled by COVID-19, but now the Norwegian youngster has been affected by injury. He missed the final Champions League group stage match which was 1-2 win at Zenit St Petersburg with a muscle injury. He is not expected to be back until 2021.
Until he got injured, the 20 year-old had managed to almost treble his market value thanks largely to his 33 goals in 32 matches for Dortmund. According to ProFootballDB, Haaland was worth 65.45 million euros last Spring. Nine months later, he is now worth 176.2 million. He is also the fastest player to reach 16 Champions League goals.
His steep increase in value means that if a club paid that amount of money for Haaland, the transfer would be the third most expensive in history. Only Neymar (222 million euros) and Kylian Mbappe (180 million euros) were worth more. Ousmane Dembele's move to Barcelona for 105 million euros in 2017 is currently the most expensive Bundesliga transfer so it would smash that as well.
Clubs could of course wait. When he signed for Borussia Dortmund, he had a buyout clause of 75 million euros in 2021. His agent Mino Raiola had already predicted the Norwegian would burst onto the scene. Whoever ends up getting Haaland will get him at a very good price because his current market value is more than 100 million euros greater than his buyout clause.