Man City still face battle for Erling Haaland as Real Madrid and Barcelona believe he prefers Spain over England

MANCHESTER CITY still face a battle for Erling Haaland as Real Madrid and Barcelona believe he prefers a move to Spain.

Pep Guardiola’s champs want to do a deal this summer to sign the Borussia Dortmund striker, who has a £64million release clause in his contract.

That puts City in pole position as their major rivals Madrid and Barca would rather wait for at least another 12 months.

Both the LaLiga giants are convinced Spain is the 21-year-old’s preference at this stage of his career.

City are likely to tell him his dream of playing in Spain — where he already owns a property — can still be realised in a few years’ time.

Haaland’s dad Alf-Inge, who played for City from 2000-03, is happy for him to follow in his footsteps.

Dortmund plan to have one last go at trying to talk Haaland into staying for another 12 months, by making him the best-paid player in their history.

That would play into Real’s hands as they want to sign Kylian Mbappe from PSG this summer.

And Barca could use the delay to try and sort out their mountain of debt.

The cash-strapped club are wary of spending too much to land Haaland and have ruled out any move that could put the club at any further risk.

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Barca are keen to avoid the situation they found themselves in last summer when they were forced to let Lionel Messi leave on a free.

There is still a chance the Argentine could return to the Nou Camp in what would be a stunning return.

Messi's father Jorge has reportedly made calls to the club in a bid to secure his son's return after Messi was booed by his own fans on Sunday.