Say whatever you want about Chelsea Owner Roman Abramovich, and a whole lot has indeed been said over the years, but you simply cannot say that he doesn’t love his football club. The Russian oligarch and Vladimir Putin’s favorite son has poured loads and loads of money into the southwest London outfit, over and over again, in the hopes of making them the best they can possibly be.
Abramovich is reportedly ready to make it rain again, having now sanctioned the €175.3m (£150m, $207m) in funding it would supposedly take to sign striker supreme Erling Haaland from Borussia Dortmund.
Yes, it could be happening! Per a BILD report in Germany, Abramovich has already released the funding allocation and given the green light for this. Haaland has a £68 million release clause that becomes active next summer, but Chelsea want to land him this year, when there will be far fewer bidders.
And in addition to this, Abramovich and Chelsea bid 100 million Euros for Juventus winger Federico Chiesa too.
The talk all summer has been that it’s just up to Roman Abramovich, whether this deal happens or not. Dortmund have set ther price, and it would absolutely demolish the record for money spent by an English club on one single player.
It’s hard to imagine that BVB would turn down more than double the super scoring sensation’s transfer fee, right?
Actually, their stance still remains the same.
They don’t want to sell Haaland and they insist that he’ll be a part of their plans this upcoming season.
“We are planning firmly with Erling for the new season,” said sporting director Michael Zorc.
BILD posed the question of his club future directly to Haaland, and his response or non-response. said quite a bit:
“Are you staying with Borussia Dortmund, Haaland?” The reporter asked.
The 20-year-old thought “about it for a moment,” then just gave a “big grin” but said nothing.
So watch this space! It looks encouraging, but anything can happen, or not happen right now. A deal this size financially always comes with extra complications.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune.
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