Manchester City are reportedly preparing to open talks with star striker Erling Braut Haaland over a new contract.
The 22-year-old has broken records for fun since touching down at the Etihad Stadium last summer and brought up 50 goals for the season in Sunday's 2-1 Premier League win over Fulham.
Haaland picked out the bottom corner with aplomb from the penalty spot to record a half-century of strikes, becoming the first player in English football to do so for 92 years.
The former Borussia Dortmund man has already broken the record for the most goals in a 38-game Premier League season, and his spot kick at Craven Cottage marked his 34th top-flight goal of the campaign.
Haaland has thus drawn level with Alan Shearer and Andy Cole for the most Premier League goals in a single season of any length during a phenomenal year, propelling Man City back to the top of the table at Arsenal's expense.
Despite tying the Norway international down to a five-year deal last summer, Football Insider claims that Man City are already set to discuss an extension to Haaland's contract until 2027.
Upon his £52.6m arrival from Dortmund last summer, Haaland is believed to have agreed to a £150m release clause, which clubs would have been able to trigger in 2024.
Links with Real Madrid began to resurface as a result, but with manager Pep Guardiola recently signing a new contract of his own, that nine-figure clause has been rendered null and void.
The report states that the Premier League champions intend to tie Haaland down for another two years until the summer of 2029, by which time he will be 29 years old, and the striker is happy in Manchester and willing to discuss an extension.
It is unclear if City will include any sort of release clause in the Norwegian's new deal, but the Citizens want to ensure that their Premier League rivals cannot poach Haaland in the same manner that they did in 2022.
As well as finding the back of the net 50 times in 44 matches across all competitions, Haaland has also come up with eight assists for his teammates, setting up Kevin De Bruyne twice in their 4-1 midweek thrashing of Arsenal.
Haaland stepped up to the 12-yard mark on Sunday after Julian Alvarez was tripped by Tim Ream, but Fulham refused to wave the white flag and responded through Carlos Vinicius to level the scores.
However, Alvarez - standing in for the injured De Bruyne - capped off a stellar performance with a sumptuous winner towards the end of the first half, allowing City to return to the top of the rankings for the first time since February.
Arsenal could temporarily go back to the summit when they host Chelsea on Tuesday night, but the Gunners have played a game more than Man City, who hold a one-point lead over Mikel Arteta's team.
Next up for the champions is the visit of West Ham United to the Etihad on Wednesday evening, where another goal for Haaland would see him set an outright record for a single Premier League season. body check tags ::
