Manchester United let ex-BVB star Erling Haaland slip through their fingers

A few years ago, Erling Haaland would have been a steal for Man United. But the Red Devils didn’t want to.

Manchester United once missed a concrete opportunity to sign superstar Erling Haaland. Ex-United team manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer stated in the Sunas he himself picked up the phone before joining the Red Devils to accommodate today’s Manchester City striker at Old Trafford.

Solskjaer, once a pro at United, coached Haaland at Molde FK in 2018. At the time, he tried to persuade his ex-club to sign his fellow Norwegian: “I called United about six months before I took over there. I told them I had a special striker, but nobody listened to me . The demand was £4m (about €4.5m, ed.) but they didn’t sign him.”

So while United weren’t convinced by the then 18-year-old, Red Bull Salzburg slammed the deal in 2019 for a fee of eight million euros. United were again linked to Haaland a year later. His ex-sponsor Solskjaer now works there as head coach, but the striker still decided against United and for a 20 million euro move to BVB.

A clipper like Haaland would currently look good on ManUnited. While the record champions would like to sign a new striker for the coming season, Haaland has already broken a number of records at neighbor City in his first Premier League season. He currently has 51 goals in 47 competitive games for the Skyblues. The 22-year-old also provided eight assists.