Olympique Lyon once overlooked Erling Haaland

The French top club Olympique Lyon once apparently overlooked the talent of Borussia Dortmund’s star striker Erling Haaland. At least that’s what Cyril Collot, French sports journalist and co-author of the book “Erling Haaland: tout d’un grand”, claims.

Collot described RMChow scouts from the former Ligue 1 series champions visited Haaland’s training club Bryne FK around six years ago.

Instead of getting Haaland, Lyons officials decided to sign Tord Salte, who was Haaland’s “best friend” at the time.

Not a good deal as the defender failed to prevail in Lyon and returned to Norway in 2018. There he is currently playing in the 2nd division.

According to Collot, Haaland has developed enormously, especially physically, compared to his youth in Bryne: “There he (Haaland, editor’s note) was even the smallest member of the team until he was ten or twelve. He was a year younger than his teammates, but of course he had different qualities. He was a player with a lot of temperament. “