Manchester United and Erling Haaland was a dance that lasted for almost two years, with the Norweigan being a protégé of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Now playing and scoring for Manchester City, the young striker was close to Manchester United at several points throughout the very early days of his career.
Speaking to The Athletic, former chief scout of Molde, John Vik, has told a story of a conversation he once had with Solskjaer about Haaland and explained how the young striker was recommended to the club well before he became a big name.
“I remember one day when I was watching Erling train,” says Vik. “He had been with us seven or eight months, he was training really hard and he had become part of the squad.
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"I walked down to see Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who was Molde’s manager, and I said, ‘You have to call Manchester United, mate – this is unreal what we are looking at.’"
Solskjaer tried, on several occasions, to bring Haaland to United while he was manager, even flying out to meet and discuss with him personally before the young striker eventually signed for Borussia Dortmund.
“Me and Ole understood that this kid was so good we were not going to be able to keep him," explained Vik.
Vik continued and described how Solskjaer clearly understood and shared his opinion on Haaland, and that Solskjaer actually recommended the striker to the Red Devils.
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“Ole agreed with absolutely everything. ‘I will put a phone call in’, he said, ‘they need to hear about this kid’. We had friends at United.
"I used to work closely with United, in the early 2000s, and most of the guys I knew had gone. But Ole was Ole. ‘For God’s sake’, I said, ‘call Nicky Butt (then United’s head of academy), or call somebody, because this kid is unreal.'"
“This was even before Erling had really started to play for Molde properly. Ole put the phone call in. So the name was put in. Then, how or whether United followed it up, I don’t know.”
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Erling Haaland now playing across the town for Manchester City will only make the failure to land him sting even more.
Haaland has so far scored 12 goals already this season and is absolutely smashing all targets under Pep Guardiola, and to think he could have been a United player from much earlier in his career is a tough pill to swallow.
“I think they (the English scouts) looked at him as a target man because he was so big,” says Vik.
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“I kept telling them, ‘He’s not a target man – if you’re going to judge him that way, you’re going to be disappointed’."
Manchester United are due to play Manchester City in their next Premier League fixture, with kick-off set for Sunday 2 October.
United have one more fixture ahead of the international break against FC Sheriff in the Europa League on Thursday evening.
Topics: Manchester United, Manchester City, Erling Haaland, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Pep Guardiola
Dylan Penketh