Manchester City’s dispute with Enrique Riquelme began with a campaign promise dressed up like a transfer plan. Riquelme, one of two approved candidates for Real Madrid’s presidency, made Manchester City striker Erling Haaland the centerpiece of his pitch before the club’s June 7 vote.
The claim came on Spanish television, where Riquelme displayed a Madrid shirt carrying Haaland’s name. He said, “Haaland has a release clause and he wants to come to Madrid,” and presented the forward as the defining pledge of his challenge to Florentino Pérez. His pitch also included Rodri, another City player, and a personal guarantee to cover the annual dues of Real Madrid’s members if he failed to deliver the two signings.
City’s response was unusually direct. “The stories which have emerged from Spain regarding the future of Erling Haaland are untrue,” a spokesperson said. “There is no chance of this happening and there is no contractual clause to enable it. We are considering legal action for the use of our player’s image in this context.”
Haaland’s side also moved quickly. Alfie Haaland, the player’s father, and Rafaela Pimenta, his agent, rejected the suggestion in a joint statement. “All very entertaining but not true,” they said. “We wish all the best for both candidates in the Madrid elections.”
The timing gives the episode its sharp edge. Real Madrid’s Electoral Board has approved only two candidacies, one led by Pérez and one by Riquelme. Voting is scheduled for June 7 at Ciudad Real Madrid, with the club heading into a rare contested presidential race after two seasons without a major trophy.
A transfer promise with legal consequences
The mechanics matter. Riquelme is not Real Madrid’s president, and nothing reported so far establishes a completed transfer, agreement, or club-to-club bid. City’s complaint, as stated publicly, centers on the use of Haaland’s image in a campaign setting and on the claim that the player’s contract contains a route to Madrid. That separates this from an ordinary week of transfer speculation. A shirt with a current player’s name on it, held up during a presidential campaign, gives the rumor a visual form.
Haaland’s contract makes the claim more sensitive for City. In January 2025, the club announced a new 10-year deal that keeps him in Manchester until the summer of 2034. A contract of that length was meant to remove uncertainty around a player who had already become central to City’s sporting and commercial identity.
Riquelme has not withdrawn the claim. In an interview with AS after City and Haaland’s camp rejected it, he maintained that the denial was part of the game and repeated that Haaland had a clause. He also said talks with City would be needed and that the English club deserved respect. The result is a campaign pledge resting on assertions that the selling club and the player’s representatives have publicly rejected.
The election backdrop helps explain why the line became so contentious. Real Madrid presidential campaigns have a long association with player promises, most famously Pérez’s 2000 pursuit of Luís Figo. Riquelme’s Haaland pledge gestures toward that history, but with one crucial difference: the player named is tied to a long City contract, and City has said the pathway being described does not exist.
For Real Madrid and Manchester City, this is familiar terrain in one sense and unfamiliar in another. The clubs are used to meeting in the most valuable spaces of the game, from the Champions League to the transfer market. This time, the dispute is not over a match or a bid. It is over whether a player’s name can be turned into campaign capital before any club-to-club process has begun.
The next step belongs to the institutions involved. City may file legal action or decide the public denial is enough. Real Madrid’s election will proceed with Pérez and Riquelme on the ballot. Haaland remains under contract at City, and the only confirmed position from his side is that Riquelme’s claim is not true.
