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Haaland: The latest star war between Barcelona and Real Madrid

  /  autty

Erling Haaland is the latest to be included in the list of world-class players who have sparked a tussle over their signatures between Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Despite Barcelona's financial struggles, president Joan Laporta is keen to make a move for the Borussia Dortmund striker, who has been also placed on Real Madrid's radar despite Los Blancos' intention to land Kylian Mbappe in summer.

Meanwhile, Premier League clubs such as Manchester City and Chelsea are also interested in acquiring his services, while Paris Saint-Germain could also try to sign the Norway international in the event Mbappe decides to leave the Ligue 1 club in summer.

Beckham's 'yes' to Real Madrid amid Barcelona's interest

The first duel between Florentino Perez and Joan Laporta in terms of signings dates back in the summer of 2003, when Manchester United had accepted Barcelona's offer to land David Beckham, but the Englishman ended up joining Los Blancos.

Later on, Laporta claimed in an interview for MARCA that United used Barcelona to sell Beckham to Real Madrid, but the former international had expressed his desire to join the Madrid-based club instead of the Catalans.

Beckham finally put pen to paper on a four-year deal and Real Madrid signed him from the Red Devils in exchange for 25 million euros.

Ronaldinho's singing and Real Madrid's condition

After losing Beckham to Real Madrid, Laporta spent 25m euros plus 5m euros in add-ons to sign Ronaldinho from Paris Saint-Germain, as Perez had dealt a huge blow to the prestige of the Blaugrana.

Real Madrid tried to convince Ronaldinho to stay for another year at PSG before making a move to the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, but the Brazilian forward decided to join Barcelona that same summer.

Neymar: An endless soap opera

Barcelona did take their revenge with the signing of Neymar from Santos some years later.

"Real [Madrid] were very insistent, but Neymar didn't want to play for [Real] Madrid as he wanted to go to Barcelona," Wagner Ribeiro, one of the biggest agents in South America, said in an interview with L'Equipe.

"Florentino thought he'd got him. He accepted an offer that I presented to him. He was willing to pay Santos 40m euros and comply with everything we asked for.

"His father asked him for time because Neymar preferred Barcelona. [Real] Madrid insisted, they sent three directors, lawyers. They stayed for 20 days and told me 'Come on, we'll sign tomorrow!'

"[Lionel] Messi called him, [Gerard] Pique... But [then-Barcelona president] Sandro Rosell didn't want me to take part in the negotiations.

"He left me out of everything because he didn't pay me a cent for Neymar's transfer to Barcelona. They even left me out of the celebrations because I was closer to Florentino Perez."

Barcelona announced Neymar's signing on May 26, 2013, and that summer Real Madrid signed Gareth Bale from Tottenham .

As Ribeiro also revealed, Neymar could then have moved to Spain for Los Blancos just two years after arriving in Paris.

"At that time, he was close to going to Real Madrid," he added.

"[They] were willing to pay 300m euros, but Nasser [Al-Khelaifi] said that not even for 1bn euros would he leave."

Real Madrid's doubts about Luis Suarez

Luis Suarez was another superstar who had attracted interest from both Real Madrid and Barcelona following his impressive displays for Liverpool in the Premier League.

"Every player wants to reach the top and Real Madrid are at the top", Suarez noted in the summer of 2013.

Liverpool refused to sell him at the time and the two Spanish giants were keen to make a move for him in 2014.

Carlo Ancelotti gave the green light for the club to carry out the signing, but he insisted against selling Karim Benzema because he considered the Frenchman as the ideal player to complement Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Barcelona finally signed Suarez, but the Uruguay international didn't make his debut until October 25 after receiving a four-month ban for biting Giorgio Chiellini at the 2014 World Cup.