Manchester City star Erling Haaland‘s FC Barcelona links have been an iconic storyline in soccer lately. Barca had almost signed the Norwegian in 2022. Meanwhile, rumors from April stressed Haaland would join the Blaugrana in 2025. Since Barcelona’s bitter rival Real Madrid has upped their ante by signing Kylian Mbappe, a player of Haaland’s stature is the need of the hour in Camp Nou. However, in a surprising move, Barca has reportedly stopped pursuing the City striker. Instead, Joan Laporta and Co. are eyeing his teammate from Pep Guardiola’s batch.

As per transfer market expert Ekrem Konur, Barcelona has entered a race with PSG to buy Manchester City’s second striker, Julian Alvarez. For PSG, the Argentine World champion could replace Mbappe. Meanwhile, Barca is looking for Alvarez’s young legs to replace the 35-year-old Robert Lewandowski. Konur’s latest update on Barca’s pursuit of Alvarez emerges just days after he reported that City is not planning to sell the Argentine striker.

Reports also suggested that Pep Guardiola and Co. will keep Alvarez at Etihad unless he specifically opts for a City exit. The 24-year-old, who is busy defending the Copa America with Argentina, has not spoken about his future yet. Anyhow, it must be noted that Erling Haaland is always the first option striker for Guardiola. If the Argentine continues to be in Haaland’s shadow, it won’t be beyond him to ask out of the Premier League side. Anyhow, Barcelona would not have reached this striker conundrum had they completed Haaland’s deal in 2022. What happened back then? Let’s find out.

All about Erling Haaland’s failed Barcelona transfer and links to the Catalan club

Stories have it that Barcelona and Erling Haaland agreed to a deal in 2021. Former Barca boss Xavi Hernandez even traveled to Germany to ensure Haaland, the ex-Borussia Dortmund player, would come through. However, Barcelona’s massive debt and related financial constraints jeopardized their move for the Norwegian. Thereafter, the serial striker gave up his Barcelona plans and joined Pep Guardiola’s side.

Considering that rumors from April re-linked Haaland to the Blaugrana, fans have been theorizing that the Spanish club recently landed a Nike deal to sign the striker. Barcelona has reportedly inked a $160 million deal with their kit maker Nike recently. Notably, any club that wants Haaland should pay a release clause north of $100 million. So it is not surprising for fans to expect the Nike deal will help the Catalan side land the Norwegian. Now that 5x-Champions League winners are strongly pursuing Alvarez, the rumor mill will take an unpleasant break from spreading the Haaland-Barca talks.