Pep Guardiola is confident that Erling Haaland will remain loyal to Manchester City, despite reports continually pushing Barcelona’s interest in the prolific striker.
Barça have been linked with Haaland for some time, forced to consider a future without current No. 9 Robert Lewandowski, who is out of contract next summer—albeit with an option to extend by 12 months—and celebrated his 37th birthday in August.
Haaland, a striker who has scored 318 senior career goals for club and country by the age of 25, is the obvious dream replacement for the Catalan giants.
“Can you tell me one club that wouldn’t dream of Erling Haaland?” Guardiola responded when the transfer links were put to him. “I understand Barcelona dream of Erling, and all the clubs in the world. If Erling would not be with us, it would be a dream for Man City to have Erling.”
More goals than games. Which striker is having the best season? pic.twitter.com/NICINflUar
— Sports Illustrated FC (@SI_FootballClub) October 5, 2025
What currently gives City enormous power is the decade-long contract announced last season, which ties Haaland to the Manchester club until the summer of 2034.
Guardiola suggested that Haaland would not have signed such a deal if he didn’t plan to honour it.
“What is going to happen, honestly, I don’t know. I know he has a long contract here and I think he’s doing really well and scoring a lot of goals. I had the feeling the team helps him a lot and gives him a lot of actions where he is able to score a goal,” the City manager explained.
“I think Erling isn’t stupid enough to sign something he doesn’t want to accomplish, that is for sure. But football, who knows what is going to happen in the next time. Nobody knows.”
Haaland Is ‘City No Matter What’
After seeing his goal numbers progressively drop since banging in 52 during his debut season with City in 2022–23—it was 38 in 2023–24 and then 34 in 2024–25—Haaland has made a flying start to the campaign with 11 goals in his first eight appearances.
It points towards a happy player, who said as much when he penned his deal.
“I am really happy to have signed my new contract and to be able to look forward to spending even more time at this great club,” Haaland offered at time.
“Manchester City is a special club, full of fantastic people with amazing supporters and it’s the type of environment that helps bring the best out of everybody.
“I also want to thank Pep, his coaching staff, my teammates and everyone at the club as they have all helped me so much in the past couple of years. They have made this such a special place to be and now I am City no matter what. I want to keep developing, keep working to get better and look to do my best to try and help us achieve more success going forward.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as ‘Erling Isn’t Stupid’—Pep Guardiola Responds to Persistent Haaland Exit Speculation.
