Manchester City’s eight-month planning process behind historic Erling Haaland moment revealed | OneFootball

A new report has gone behind-the-scenes into an eight-month long planning process building up to the unveiling of Erling Haaland’s recently-signing contract extension.

The Norway international striker stunned the world of football as he committed the rest of his top-level playing career to the Etihad Stadium earlier this month, signing a new nine-and-a-half year agreement with the Premier League champions.

With the deal believed to be one of the most lucrative contracts ever seen in the sport, and potential bonuses and incentives taking his pay package close to the £1 million per week barrier, Erling Haaland’s achievements have been more than recognised by the club.

And as a long-standing process behind-the-scenes from club officials to negotiate and finalise a deal with Haaland himself, his family, and super-agent Rafaela Pimenta comes to a close, so has the work undertaken by the club’s media team.

The unveiling of Erling Haaland’s new contractual agreement featured the 24-year-old striker meditating in the snow, penning a personal message to opposition defenders at a desk, and conducting a wide-range of media duties for the club and television broadcasters.

According to the information of the Manchester Evening News’ Simon Bajkowski, Manchester City’s content team had been working on how to announce Erling Haaland’s brand new contract since June 2024.

It is detailed that plans within the club then picked up back in November when they were handed an indication that things were progressing, and accelerated such plans between the contract signing and the announcement date itself.

That process undoubtedly paid off as the club revealed that across the announcement content covering Haaland’s new contract, over 200 million views were generated across media platforms in the first five days.

To further emphasise the magnitude of those numbers, the report states that such figures are double what Manchester City had managed when they first announced the Norwegian’s signing at the club from Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2022.

For now, Haaland and those around him will almost certainly switch their focus right back to on-field events as there is plenty still to play for across competitions for Pep Guardiola and his players this season.

As Manchester City continue to fight for a top-four finish in the Premier League and a Champions League place for next season, the FA Cup brings about a clash against Leyton Orient away from home in February.

Then there is the small matter of the Champions League’s knock-out phase, after a last-gasp matchday eight win over Club Brugge ensured that City recorded a play-off place for the last-16 of the competition where they will face either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich.

High-profile English top-flight matches are also on the horizon, including against the likes of Arsenal and Nottingham Forest away from home, in addition to Etihad Stadium visits for Liverpool and Newcastle United.