It seemed like a match made in heaven, Erling Haaland and Real Madrid, it was going to be Florentino Pérez’s massive statement that Real Madrid is truly back and ready to dominate European soccer for years to come.

With the imminent signing of Kylian Mbappé for next season, Real Madrid was ready to return to their galáctico era with Haaland but the player born in Leeds, England has pledge his allegiance to Manchester City.

Now journalist Ramón Álvarez de Mon has revealed why Erling Haaland ultimately decided to go with Manchester City over Real Madrid, it was for one key reason.

The reason why Erling Haaland did not sign with Real Madrid

Karim Benzema (Photo by Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images)

According to Álvarez de Mon, Haaland wanted to have a big-time role at Real Madrid from the start, but the club could not guarantee that with the form Karim Benzema has had the last few years.

While it would be farfetched to believe that Real Madrid would not have found a way to put both strikers on the field at the same time, the club, according to Álvarez de Mon could not commit to making Haaland the center of everything at Real Madrid.

Benzema is coming off of career years, in the last four years the French striker has scored 20 goals or more each season. This year Benzema has 43 goals in 43 games across all competitions, an incredible goal per game ratio.