Former Everton striker and assistant Duncan Ferguson has revealed that Erling Haaland was offered to the Toffees for £2million, and added that Leeds United were possibly offered the same deal.
Everton refused to pay the fee proposed by Bryne FK for Haaland, who was 15 or 16 at the time, when his father and former Leeds star Alfie took him to Finch Farm. Haaland ended up signing professional terms with Bryne in 2016, but Ferguson also believes Leeds would've been offered Haaland due to his father's connections with the club.
"What a phenomenal player he is and I'll tell you a story," Ferguson revealed on the No Tippy Tappy Football Podcast. "Believe it or not he was in at Everton. He was in at Everton because his dad brought him in and they never signed him.
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"He was 15 or 16. The team that he was with wanted a couple of million quid for him and Everton wouldn't sign him. Nobody knew that and I've just told you.
"I'm pretty sure that if his dad took him to Everton then he'd have taken him to Leeds because his dad played for Leeds."
Leeds-born Haaland has enjoyed an astronomical rise since scoring a record nine goals for Norway U20s in a 12-0 win over Honduras at the 2019 U20 World Cup.
He went onto score 28 goals in 22 games during the first half of the 2019-20 season at Red Bull Salzburg, before joining Borussia Dortmund in the winter of 2019.
The 22-year-old scored 86 goals in 89 appearances for the Black and Yellows and has continued his quest to become one of the greatest goal scorers in history at Manchester City.
Haaland has already notched 17 goals in 11 Premier League games for the Citizens and a further 22 goals across all competitions. He is already over half way to breaking Mohamed Salah's record for goals in a single season, which he set when scoring 32 for Liverpool in 2017-18.
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