ERLING HAALAND is the best striker in the world and will become the most expensive footballer of all time, believes Christian Vieri.
The Norwegian striker, still only 19, burst on to the scene with Red Bull Salzburg before being snapped up by Borussia Dortmund in January.
Despite missing out on his signature, Manchester United and Real Madrid are both still keen on the lethal striker.
And Italian great Vieri, who knows a thing or two about scoring after hitting 259 goals in 525 career games for club and country, reckons the youngster could go for as much as £260million.
Speaking on Instagram Live with Corriere della Sera, the former striker said: “In a couple of years he will go to a great team for €200m, maybe €300m [£260m].
“Haaland is the strongest of all [strikers] and has done well to choose Borussia Dortmund, the best club to enhance his talents.”
Haaland rejected the advances of some of Europe’s biggest and richest clubs to join the Bundesliga side for just £17m.
The Signal Iduna Park outfit have a brilliant record of developing young talents with the likes of Mario Gotze, Christian Pulisic and now Jadon Sancho all progressing at the club.
And after 29 goals in 27 games for Salzburg, Haaland hit the ground running in Germany with 12 goals in his first 11 games.
He does have a £63m release clause in his five-year contract at Dortmund.
However, that does not come into effect this summer and therefore cannot be triggered until 2021 – although recent reports suggest it will not be until 2022 instead.
It means clubs desperate to pay whatever it takes to get Haaland would technically be able to do so this summer, although that seems unlikely with the coronavirus crisis set to have a major impact of the transfer market.
Alternatively, if Dortmund were able to negotiate a new deal with Haaland and his agent Mino Raiola, they will be desperate to take out the release clause which could then see the German club demand a huge figure from any potential buyers rather than lose him for a relatively cheap price.
Manchester United will no doubt pursue any avenue possible to land Haaland, especially if he is available for £63m next year, even though he rejected compatriot Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s advances last year.
However, the Red Devils face stiff competition with Real Madrid favourites to sign the striker next.
With Karim Benzema needing replacing in the long term and Luka Jovic struggling for form since arriving from Eintracht Frankfurt last summer, Los Blancos are still on the hunt for a new No9.
Haaland’s compatriot Martin Odegaard, who himself could be ready to properly launch his career at Real Madrid, is also doing his best to lure his pal to Spain.
Their No1 target is Kylian Mbappe but Paris Saint-Germain are playing hardball, insisting they would rather let the Frenchman leave for free when his contract expires in 2022 than sell him to the Bernabeu for any price.
Timo Werner of RB Leipzig could be a back-up option for Real Madrid should they fail in their pursuits of both Mbappe and Haaland.
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