Manchester City look set to bolster their attacking ranks with a mega money move for Erling Haaland this summer. Pep Guardiola's pursuit of the striker has long been rumoured, and the Daily Mail claims that terms have now been agreed with representatives of the player.
City are apparently poised to trigger the £63million release clause Haaland has in place with Borussia Dortmund, and land the 21-year-old forward with a salary that will break the £500,000 a week mark.
The Mail article published late last night says: "City have remained quietly confident throughout the process and are now closing in on the prolific forward manager Pep Guardiola craves. If all goes according to plan, what is likely to be a five-year deal should be sealed in the next week or so."
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As with many stories and journeys in football, things could have worked out differently for Haaland. And when he was a teenager, his path crossed with Everton.
Haaland started out in his native Norway with Bryne FK, a club he joined at the age of five.
He would go on to progress through the ranks at Bryne before breaking into the first team at the tender age of 15, his abundant talent already clear to the staff at the third tier outfit.
His progress had already been noted by another interested observer, too, someone who had been keeping tabs on his exploits in the reserves and then the senior side.
After a career as a goalkeeper in English football in the 1970s with the likes of Chelmsford City, Millwall and Coventry City, Brian King pitched up in Norway and went into management with clubs such as FK Jerv, Harstad, Tynset, Rendalen and Kongsberg, where he lives, before being appointed as Everton's talent spotter in Scandanavia.
Decades in Norway saw him develop great contacts and the talents of Haaland had been buzzing around the country's footballing fraternity for some time. He would soon be heading over to Merseyside to try and prove his credentials.
Ian Atkins, Head of European Recruitment at Everton between 2012 and 2016, worked with King at both the Toffees and then Aston Villa and recalls vividly a chance that was passed up.
"Brian King was really excited about this kid," Atkins told the ECHO last year.
"He'd watched Haaland a lot and rated him really highly. He gets on to the club and manages to get him in for four days with the Academy so that the coaches can have a look at him and see what they think.
"This is when Haaland is at Bryne, before the Molde move, so he's raw but he's got all these great attributes you don't often see in someone so young.
"He comes in for four days and the Academy decided he wasn't good enough, something that Brian King didn't agree with. He thought there was a real talent in there but they didn't agree. He was one that got away for Everton, but you get that in football. I think Haaland would have suited the English game, though."
Shortly after that trial, ex-Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer - then in charge at Molde - snapped him up and Haaland went into the reserves at the Tippeligaen side before being promoted to the senior team shortly after.
Fourteen goals in 39 games paved the way for a move to Red Bull Salzburg before Dortmund came knocking and landed a player who looks set to dominate European football for some time to come.
King would depart Everton's scouting set up in January of 2017, following Atkins down the M6 to link up in the scouting department at Aston Villa.
And City now look set to get their £63m man - giving the rest of the Premier League and even bigger problem to deal with next season.
