Football
Pep Guardiola Breaks His Silence On Erling Haaland’s Mammoth New Nine-And-A-Half-Year Manchester City Deal
After graduating from Kingston University with an upper second-class Honours degree, I learned the ropes in sports journalism starting at Sports Mole before making my way through the ranks at the MailOnline. I started initially as a freelancer before going on to become an assistant sports editor in seven years at the company. Love football, cursed by Spurs and you can catch me watching/falling asleep to the F1 while hungover on a Sunday.
Get to know Sam McEvoy betterPublished17 Jan 2025
Pep Guardiola has described Erling Haaland’s new nine-and-a-half-year contract at Manchester City as “exceptional” and is backing the striker to break more records for the club.
Pep Guardiola: Erling Haaland’s New Mega Deal Shows Man City’s Trust
football history on Friday.
The Norwegian striker committed the next nine and a half years of his future to Man City. He’s set to see a boost in his £400,000-a-week wages, making it one of the largest contracts in history.
Reports are also suggesting that the two release clauses in his prior deal have not been included this time round. Guardiola believes Haaland’s new deal won’t slow him down and that his mindset will see him achieve great things in the sport.
“In 10 years, wow, you never know what is going to happen,” Guardiola explained. “It’s a long, long time, and always in a short career you have to say, ‘OK stay, see what happens’, and he proved what he wanted, and trusts the club.
"Exceptional news … it's proof of confidence and trust" 🙌
Pep Guardiola on Erling Haaland's nine-and-a-half-year contract extension at Manchester City 📝 pic.twitter.com/iCmipNovp7
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) January 17, 2025
“We have to create an environment where he is unstoppable, because there he is the best. He’s still so young, and I’m pretty sure he’ll mature by playing games, and games, and games, and it’s going to happen naturally.
“I don’t have the feeling that he’s a guy with a contract who says, ‘Now I have this I’m going to take a nap’. It’s not going to happen. He loves to play, a huge competitor, but at the same time he as the ability to get away from good moments and bad moments immediately. His mindset is really good to forget what happened, and think about the next.”
Haaland Can Break All The Records At City, Says Guardiola
Haaland has already scored 111 goals in 126 appearances for Man City in his three years at the Etihad. Along with multiple league titles, Haaland helped the club claim a historic Treble in 2023. And Guardiola believes he can break all the records in the next 10 years.
“If he continues with the numbers since he arrived, yeah [his records will never be beaten],” he added. “But it will depend on the team, him as well. It’s exceptional news for all of us, the club.
“When one player decides to sign this type of contract never done before it’s because he wants to show how desperately he wants to be here. Next season, if I’m still here, I will do 10 years [at Man City]. So he has to beat me.
“He comes from Norway; I think maybe the weather here [in Manchester] is better. And he settled perfectly, and I think what happened is because he loves the club, the people he is around, he loves the Premier League, he loves to be here with his wife and now he’s a father.
“So I think he visualised that there is no better place that he could be right now in the next 10 years. And that’s why he and his family decided to do this step.”