Erling Haaland could be announced as a Manchester City player as early as this week, according to multiple reports.
News that Haaland would make a decision on his future came out over the weekend, and the latest updates on the story now suggest that City fans can afford to get very excited.
The Norwegian striker's contract with Borussia Dortmund means he will be available for £64 million this summer – and with over 150 career goals aged just 21, he's attracted attention from many of Europe's elite clubs.
A transfer battle between Manchester City and Real Madrid in particular was expected to rage over the summer, filling back pages in a year that would otherwise have been devoted to World Cup coverage. The likes of Bayern Munich, Barcelona, PSG, Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United have all been linked at various points.
Now it seems that transfer race could be over before it had really begun, with City all but confirmed to be Haaland's next destination.
According to German site Sport1, Borussia Dortmund sporting director Sebastien Kehl expects "clarity in the next week" over where Haaland will ply his trade next season.
Meanwhile, The Athletic reports that sources in Germany believe that Haaland to City is now a "done deal" and it is more a matter of when, not if, he will be announced as an Etihad arrival.
Indeed, with personal agreements understood to have been agreed between Man City and Haaland in the past month, it could now just be a case of an agreement being reached between the clubs – and with Haaland's contract featuring a release clause, that should not be an issue.
So, how would Haaland fit at Manchester City? At FourFourTwo, we expect him to simply fulfil the centre-forward role vacated by Sergio Aguero last year, in a similar way to how Pep Guardiola used Robert Lewandowski at Bayern Munich.
