No tears for Haaland

There is now real momentum in the transfer market for professional footballers. Market. Not a nice word. Clear. Sounds like an auction. Who hasn't yet, who wants to again. In these circles, of course, one would have to say: Who else can? Keeping up with the insane amounts of money that now have to be paid on the house table in order to sign sought-after kickers. It's gotten so out of hand that it hardly makes sense to research how much money Manchester City ultimately had to raise for Erling Haaland. The transfer fee, stipulated in his contract with Borussia Dortmund, was probably 75 million euros. For Sheikh Mansour, a member of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi and owner of the club since 2008, this is probably just a grab for the bulging petty cash box. One can only speculate wildly about the rest, the salary, the bonuses for the consultants and other background noise. Or better: you leave it alone because it's almost impossible to understand anyway.

A goal machine: Erling Haaland © ANSA / FRIEDEMANN VOGEL / STF

Erling Haaland has pushed the boundaries again. Somewhere in orbit. It's also pointless to discuss whether the Norwegian is worth all the financial madness. Well, he scores goals. That's what it's all about in the first place. He scored 88 goals in the 85 games he played at Dortmund. That is of course an outstanding quota, which is why one could assume that they will now be in mourning in Dortmund. They have recently finished second in the Bundesliga eight times. Always behind FC Bayern. And now things should get better without Haaland?

The Dortmund spectators are full of confidence. Their club slogan, originally transmitted by a die-hard fan, says: “And even if one leaves us, the others play better now. The man can leave, BVB will stay there.” Dortmund's managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke goes one better. “We have been playing football for 113 years, 111 of them without Haaland.” In fact, no one sheds a tear for the Norwegian in Dortmund. The focus was always too much on him. He made the others smaller than they are and thus changed the team structure. An attraction is lost The Bundesliga will be missing an attraction with Haaland's move. Above all, his physical presence, his tremendous power, combined with a brilliant goal instinct, make him an exceptional footballer. He is a classic center forward who still has some weaknesses that he was able to hide well. Although he is 1,94 meters tall, he rarely scored headers and was never particularly prominent in set-piece situations for Dortmund. And due to the way he plays, he is also prone to injuries. However, with his speed he is able to keep the opposing defenders busy. When Haaland is in the game, these cannot be as high as is now often propagated in the new tactical orientation of many clubs. Haaland is a spearhead, but by no means a panacea and also not a sure guarantee for constant success.

He is also initially an addition in Manchester and he will probably even sit on the bench at times while eleven colleagues start their match. In Dortmund they recognized this and once again landed a brilliant deal in terms of financial direction. Borussia Dortmund is listed on the stock exchange. The shareholders have been pleased for years about the exceptionally good personnel policy in terms of financial orientation. This aspect at Borussia Dortmund is indeed remarkable, almost unique in the Bundesliga.

Two examples illustrate the foresight of the Westphalians in this area. They once earned over 60 million euros for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. For Ousmane Dembele, 105 million went into the account with comparatively low expenditure on the signing of both strikers, who, however, never really felt at home in Dortmund. Erling Haaland managed this for a short time. When his market value increased with every goal he scored and the discussion was only about where he would move, the love of the BVB fans, who are traditionally more down-to-earth and quickly became at loggerheads with stars and their exaggeration, faded stand. And it also became clear relatively quickly that Borussia Dortmund was never more than a springboard for a cheap future for Erling Haaland. Never a real Dortmunder Now things will probably be different in the Premier League too. Cult coach Jürgen Klopp from Liverpool FC, still revered at his former place of work in Dortmund, clearly put it this way. “This change sets new standards.” In Dortmund, this will be observed calmly from a distance. Haaland is already history here and has almost been forgotten because he ultimately never became a real Dortmunder.

GB Premier League International	SP	TV	P
1. Arsenal FC	30	72:24	68
2. Liverpool FC	29	67:27	67
3.Manchester City	30	67:29	67
4. Aston Villa	31	63:46	59
5.Tottenham	30	62:44	57
6. Manchester Utd.	29	40:40	48
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No tears for Haaland

The move of the Norwegian star striker Erling Haaland to Manchester City is viewed calmly in Dortmund. Our columnist Sigi Heinrich asked die-hard fans and got the impression that many are actually happy that the goalscorer is gone.

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