Erling Haaland has taken the Premier League by storm, scoring 12 goals from eight games in all competitions, but Manchester City could have missed out on the 22-year-old had domestic rivals not overlooked him as a teenager.
Haaland scored 20 goals with six assists from 50 games at Molde FK, making his debut as a 16-year-old and earning the club £7m in profit after two years, but top-flight clubs in England couldn’t look past his size.
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Daniel Taylor of The Athletic revealed that Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal saw Haaland as a target man due to his height and weight, ignoring his ability to play on the shoulder and make space to create chances.
Molde’s former chief scout John Vik said all three clubs watched Haaland in person when he was at Molde but didn’t see him as a poacher, so they didn’t end up making a move.
He said: “I think they (the English scouts) looked at him as a target man because he was so big. 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’.”
It was the biggest mistake they’d make as the 22-year-old scored 16 goals from 30 games in his last season at Molde and bagged 29 goals from 27 games for RB Salzburg, so the secret was out.
And by the time Haaland was headhunted by Dortmund for £18m, clubs knew they’d have to pay considerably more money to land his signature. The Norwegian international is 6ft 4in but has raw pace and is fantastic at creating space, so United, Liverpool and Arsenal will be kicking themselves.
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