An inexhaustive list of the most tempting release clauses knocking about in 2024 and beyond includes Erling Haaland if you can cobble the cash together.
Erling Haaland – £172.1m
The details are understandably vague at best; Papa Haaland and those agents had to earn that commission after all. It is thought that the striker’s contract contains a €200m release clause, which becomes active in the summer of 2024 and will gradually decrease in value thereafter up to the point of its expiration in 2027.
The latest word was that Manchester City were trying to negotiate said clause out of the deal during extension talks, and the absolute best of luck to them in that quest.
Premier League sides cannot activate the clause, by the way. Cheers, Todd Boehly’s crying. But just imagine the depths Real Madrid and Barcelona would plunge in a Clasico battle for the signature of a player so ridiculous.
Victor Osimhen – £113m
A record well in excess of a goal every other game with Napoli demands speculation, even outside this most shallow pool of tangibly elite modern center-forwards.
Osimhen has acknowledged his Premier League “dream,” and the parameters of any deal would exclude most other buyers from elsewhere. It is quite difficult to shake off the idea of Chelsea for obvious reasons.
Bruno Guimaraes – £100m
Paris Saint-Germain is said to be sniffing around, but it is said that the heart of Guimaraes belongs to Spain. The Newcastle midfielder has specific eyes for Barcelona, and there have even been claims that a ‘secret’ clause was inserted into the new five-year contract he signed in October, which would facilitate a far cheaper move to the Nou Camp.
Considering the Magpies bought Guimaraes for £40m two years ago, not to mention his development into a key first-team player and the fact his long-term future has been committed to St James’ Park, it feels like reports of that £60m Barcelona clause are somewhat erroneous.
But with Newcastle openly contemplating the hypothetical sale of anyone to placate the sudden apparent FFP sticklers at the Premier League, Guimaraes is far from untouchable. Liverpool and Chelsea are sniffing around.
Bruno Guimaraes reportedly has a Barcelona clause in his new contract.
Viktor Gyokeres – £86m
If being signed as a teenager by Brighton from the Swedish lower leagues was not proof enough that Gyokeres would quite obviously make it, then getting plucked by a Portuguese side was irrefutable confirmation. Coventry fielded precious few offers for a player who had made light work of the Championship; all of a sudden, the interested parties were flocking.
Twenty goals and 10 assists in 24 appearances have essentially justified Sporting’s club-record outlay already. They are league leaders and still in three other competitions, mainly because of his firepower and the coaching of Ruben Amorim.
Arsenal and Chelsea want Gyokeres, the Swede having been right under the noses of any Premier League side who bothered to take notice of the division below.
Evanilson – £86m
The usual culprits have been linked with Evanilson, whose 15 goals for Porto this season include a Champions League hat-trick off the back of a productive previous couple of campaigns. The 24-year-old still has no senior international caps for Brazil, which must be the subject of intense personal shame.
Lois Openda – £68.8m
Pep Guardiola received a painfully close illustration of Openda’s brilliance in November when his two Leipzig goals at the Etihad necessitated a dramatic comeback from Manchester City. Only Harry Kane and Serhou Guirassy have outscored the Belgian forward in the Bundesliga this season, with things simmering along nicely ahead of the activation of his release clause in the summer of 2025.
Pedro Goncalves – £68.8m
Scratch the above line about Gyokeres and Amorim carrying the Sporting burden; Goncalves has more than played his part. The Portuguese has scored 10 goals and assisted seven more in 27 appearances, attracting the attention of Aston Villa, Liverpool, Newcastle, Spurs, and presumably a fair few others.
Yeremy Pino – £68.8m
A ruptured ACL has ended Pino’s season but likely done little more than postpone talk over the future of a player who was a regular for Villarreal on their runs to Europa League glory and the Champions League semi-finals.
Nahuel Molina – £60.2m
A new contract was touted recently for World Cup winner Molina but he would need to be clawed from Diego Simeone’s cold, dead hands.
Michael Olise – £60m
The closest any outlet has come to making a definitive claim on the actual value of Olise’s new release clause was the Daily Mirror saying it was ‘around £60m’. Otherwise, it has simply been said that the £35m mark Chelsea met in the summer was significantly increased when Crystal Palace negotiated a contract extension.
In any event, it remains an eminently tempting figure for a wonderful player.
Estevao Willian – £51.6m
Brazilian. Sixteen. Winger. He goes by the nickname ‘Messinho’. The boy is practically begging to be signed by Chelsea.
Nico Williams – £51.6m
“I am happy in Bilbao,” the forward said when extending his deal until 2027 in December. Aston Villa was heavily linked last summer, but the 21-year-old will need some persuasion to ever ply his trade outside of the Basque country.
Ismael Bennacer – £43m
Another clause that will be activated in the summer is that Italian clubs are disqualified from triggering it, and there will be no financial silly beggars: it must be in one installment.
Ian Maatsen – £35m
With Chelsea slightly too open to selling homegrown players for pure profit so they can afford the prodigiously gifted young talents produced by other clubs instead, Maatsen has become hot property.
Not enough for the Blues to actually play him, of course. The left-back has sought refuge at Borussia Dortmund for a few months and could well return in the summer when his value has sky-rocketed. There might be some awkward questions for Chelsea to confront then, but nothing that 20-odd signings couldn’t fix.
Jeremie Frimpong – £34.4m
The vultures will be circling soon enough as Bayer Leverkusen strolls towards the Bundesliga title, with Victor Boniface, Alex Grimaldo, Florian Wirtz, and Xabi Alonso himself certain to entertain offers from clubs poorer in quality but considerably richer in cash.
Claudio Echeverri – £21.5m
A couple of years after signing Julian Alvarez in the winter transfer window before sending him back to River Plate, Manchester City have repeated the trick with Echeverri. The deal has been agreed – if not announced on the Premier League club’s side – but the Argentinean teenager will not land permanently in England until January 2025.
Isco – £17.2m
A flagging career finally rejuvenated, 31-year-old Isco is back in the La Liga light and thriving with an impressive Real Betis side. May he and Manuel Pellegrini never part again.
Borja Mayoral – £17.2m
Only Jude Bellingham has scored more La Liga goals this campaign than Mayoral, whose exploits have Getafe comfortably in mid-table rather than ensconced in a relegation scrap. He might be the mid-season signing to deliver the Premier League title to Arsenal, exactly 20 years since Jose Antonio Reyes did the same.
Serhou Guirassy – £15.1m
There has been frustratingly little January activity when it comes to Guirassy, whose red-hot start to the season included 15 goals in nine games before the positively glacial run of three in six. Someone grow up and sign him so he can score three goals in 28 Premier League appearances on his way to Turkey.
Paulo Dybala – £10.3m
It is thought that the deadline to exercise Dybala’s release clause has passed, with it becoming relevant again through July. If a Serie A club stumps up the necessary cash, then the decision is Roma’s, but if a foreign club swoops in, then Dybala makes the call. And Jose Mourinho presumably rages.
