Messi, Hazard, Lewandowski: Stats show Erling Haaland might be the biggest bargain ever | OneFootball

Erling Braut Haaland will almost certainly be a Manchester City player next season.

The Premier League champions announced on Tuesday afternoon that they had agreed terms to sign the Borussia Dortmund striker with the deal only subject to finalising a package with the player himself.

It’s a massive coup for City with Haaland ranking amongst the best strikers in the world at just 21 years old, boasting an outrageous record of 85 goals in 88 appearances for Dortmund.

A bargain fee for Haaland

In fact, considering that Haaland is touted as a future Ballon d’Or winner, the Citizens can rub their hands together safe in the knowledge that they’ve snapped him up for what is ultimately a cut price.

Yes, City will have to pay agents fees, monstrous wages and no doubt plenty of other extra costs, but the fact that they could snap him up for a transfer fee of just £54 million is an absolute steal.

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Let’s start easy: What was Tottenham’s old ground called?

Tottenham Marshes Northumberland Park Tottenham Hotspur Stadium White Hart Lane

To put the price tag into context, the data gurus at Transfermarkt actually laud him as the second-most valuable player in men’s football with an eye-watering worth of £135 million.

That means – for those of you doing the mental maths – City have gotten their hands on arguably the world’s best number nine for a staggering £81.00 million less than he’s actually worth.

Wolves 1-5 Man City Match Reaction (Football Terrace)

Football’s biggest bargains

And there’s good reason to think that it makes him the biggest bargain in football history because we simply can’t find a bigger gap between transfer value and transfer fee on the Transfermarkt database.

That’s because we sorted their list of the ‘most valuable transfers’ by the difference between how much the player was considered to be worth at the time of the deal and what they actually moved for.

In other words, we’re able to collate the most objective list of transfer bargains possible, drawing up the 17 players to have moved for the greatest distance below their contemporary valuation.

Loan moves and first-team promotions are off the table, but free transfers are fair game, so be sure to check out who comes closest to matching Haaland’s bargain status by checking out the full list below:

=13. Michael Ballack (Bayern Munich to Chelsea) – £31.50 million difference

Transfer fee: £0.00

=13. Adrien Rabiot (Paris Saint-Germain to Juventus) – £31.50 million difference

Transfer fee: £0.00

=13. Hakan Calhanoglu (AC Milan to Inter Milan) – £31.50 million difference

Transfer fee: £0.00

=13. Niklas Sule (Bayern Munich to Borussia Dortmund) – £31.50 million difference

Transfer fee: £0.00

Market value at the time: £31.50 million

=13. Eden Hazard (Chelsea to Real Madrid) – £31.50 million difference

12. Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal to Manchester United) – £32.40 million difference

Transfer fee: £30.60 million

=9. Leon Goretzka (Schalke to Bayern Munich) – £36.00 million difference

Transfer fee: £0.00

=9. Stefan de Vrij (Lazio to Inter Milan) – £36.00 million difference

Transfer fee: £0.00

Market value at the time: £36.00 million

=9. Aaron Ramsey (Arsenal to Juventus) – £36.00 million difference

Transfer fee: £0.00

8. Nabil Fekir (Lyon to Real Betis) – £36.23 million difference

Transfer fee: £17.78 million

Market value at the time: £54.00 million

7. Memphis Depay (Lyon to Barcelona) – £40.50 million difference

Transfer fee: £0.00

6. Robert Lewandowski (Borussia Dortmund to Bayern Munich) – £45.00 million difference

Transfer fee: £0.00

Market value at the time: £45.00 million

5. David Alaba (Bayern Munich to Real Madrid) – £49.50 million difference

Transfer fee: £0.00

4. Gianluigi Donnarumma (AC Milan to Paris Saint-Germain) – £54.00 million difference

Transfer fee: £0.00

Market value at the time: £54.00 million

3. Christian Eriksen (Tottenham Hotspur to Inter Milan) – £56.70 million difference

2. Lionel Messi (Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain) – £72.00 million difference

Transfer fee: £0.00

Market value at the time: £72.00 million

1. Erling Haaland (Borussia Dortmund to Manchester City) – £81.00 million difference

Haaland’s record could fall

Bargains. Bargains everywhere.

From the tasty free transfers of Messi and Lewandowski to Eriksen and Fekir getting snapped up for bargain fees, it’s interesting to see the most valuable players who were sold far beneath their worth.

And it really is remarkable to see Haaland leading the way with a cavern between his transfer fee and valuation that’s so large it was essentially the transfer world record just a few years ago.

However, the only catch is that the future City striker might not hold the title of football’s biggest bargain for much longer with Kylian Mbappe potentially signing for Real Madrid on a free transfer this summer.

And considering that the Paris Saint-Germain star is the only player in the world with a higher valuation than Haaland, the terrifying differential of £144.00 million would raise the bar lightyears higher.

That being said, nothing is guaranteed in football and for now, City can kick back in celebration that they’ve arguably pulled off the greatest bargain that the sport has ever seen.