Manchester United Used To Have The Opportunity To Sign Erling Haaland, But Was Thwarted By Ed Woodward

Borussia Dortmund's Erling Haaland. (Photo: Twitter @BlackYellow )

JAKARTA - Borussia Dortmund player, Erling Haaland, becomes a commodity in the player transfer market this summer. He has been ogled by a number of European giants.

Starting from Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid to Manchester City. Manchester United were also reportedly interested in Erling Haaland, but withdrew because they were believed to be unable to compete.

However, who would have thought, Manchester United actually had a great opportunity to bring in Erling Haaland. At that time, the player had not yet joined Borussia Dortmund and the Red Devils were still held by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Reported by ESPN, the opportunity came in December 2019. Solskjaer tried to take advantage of his close relationship with Haaland because they both worked at Molde.

Solskjaer is also very confident that he can bring in the player from Red Bull Salzburg for a dowry of 20 million euros. In fact, reportedly, the transaction is almost complete.

However, the deal failed to materialize after United's executive vice chairman, Ed Woodward, refused to provide a fee for Haaland's agent, Mino Raiola. In addition, he also did not like the insistence on the release clause in Haaland's contract.

The situation was put to good use by Borussia Dortmund. They came forward with an interesting proposal and finally officially signed the Norwegian player.

Dortmund's decision is not wrong. The 21-year-old has become a fearsome striker in Europe with 82 goals in 85 appearances.

Now, Erling Haaland is rumored to be joining Manchester United's "neighbors", Manchester City. In fact, the issue is, there has been an agreement on the nominal salary that will make him the highest paid player in England.