FC Barcelona: Víctor Font takes a page from Florentino Pérez’s book by playing the Erling Haaland card

Europe 12 March 2026 at 05:03

Nouya M'toama

News Editor

In the midst of a heated political battle for the FC Barcelona presidency, Erling Haaland’s name is back in the headlines. Candidate Víctor Font is leveraging the Norwegian superstar as an electoral trump card, in a move strongly reminiscent of Florentino Pérez’s strategy at Real Madrid in the early 2000s with Luis Figo.

According to the Catalan sports press, Víctor Font is quietly working on the Erling Haaland file. The goal isn’t an immediate transfer, but rather to anticipate the future. Font’s entourage has reportedly met with executives from the English club to explore the possibility of a preferential agreement should the prolific striker leave the Premier League in the coming years. Haaland, under contract until 2034, remains untouchable for now, but Font wants to show the socios that he’s already plotting Barça’s sporting future.

The message is clear: if Font wins the election, Barcelona will once again be a club capable of attracting the biggest stars in world football.

A strategy inspired by Florentino Pérez’s precedent

The method is strikingly similar to the one used by Florentino Pérez in 2000 at Real Madrid. At the time, as a presidential candidate, Pérez promised socios he would sign Luis Figo, then the star and captain of FC Barcelona.

Many thought the promise was pure fantasy. Yet, once elected, Pérez triggered the Portuguese star’s release clause and pulled off one of the most sensational transfers in football history. This political and media masterstroke helped secure his electoral triumph and ushered in the Galácticos era.

By now brandishing Erling Haaland’s name, Víctor Font appears eager to replicate that model: a global superstar as the symbol of both sporting and political renewal.

A highly speculative operation

However, the Haaland operation is still far from concrete. The Norwegian striker is valued at around €150 million, not to mention his astronomical salary demands and hefty commissions for his entourage, particularly his father, Alfie Haaland.

For now, Font’s initiative is above all a political maneuver aimed at seducing the socios and piling pressure on Joan Laporta. In a campaign where the club’s sporting future is central to the debate, just mentioning a global superstar can be enough to capture the imagination.

But as history with Florentino Pérez and Luis Figo has shown, in modern football, an electoral promise can sometimes become reality.