Chelsea were asked to pay Erling Haaland wages to the equivalent of €1m per week by super-agent Mino Raiola before the Blues ultimately turned their attention back to Romelu Lukaku.
Chelsea made a new striker their number one priority for this summer and eventually secured the £97.5m club-record signing of Lukaku earlier this month. The Belgian has since scored on his second debut, eight years after his first, in a comfortable win against Arsenal.
Having spent several months exploring options and weighing things up, Lukaku was revealed to be Chelsea’s preferred target as early as May. But he publicly expressed a desire to stay at Inter soon after and it appeared the Blues would have to reassess.
90min explained in early July that Chelsea had decided to pursue Haaland instead and were willing to offer up to £150m – but ideally closer to £135m – in order to beat the rush for the Norwegian’s coveted signature ahead of his £64m release clause becoming active in 2022.
However, that path didn’t progress and the changing situation regarding Lukaku, sparked by Inter's need to sell in order to raise cash, brought Chelsea back to the Belgian.
With regard to Haaland, it has now been revealed by Bild that the player’s camp were seeking a contract and bonuses that were bordering on extortionate. It is said that Raiola, who has represented the 21-year-old since before his 2019 explosion onto the scene in Salzburg, requested a salary for his client from Chelsea worth £820,000 per week, or over £42m per year.
Additional demands are said to have included £34m as an agent’s fee, and a salary for himself as part of a total package valued at an estimated £275m over five years, excluding any transfer fee.
Such huge numbers would be enough to put any club off. But even though Chelsea still had to offer Lukaku a club-record contract, his estimated salary of up to £450,000 per week, including bonuses, is not much more than half of what they might have had to pay Haaland.
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Source : 90min