Football agent Hayden Evans has been speaking on The Phil Hay Show about how he offered Leeds United the chance to sign Erling Haaland.
Leeds have had to operate this season largely without their main striker in Patrick Bamford, who has missed the last six league matches and has been ruled out of their clash this weekend against Tottenham Hotspur by Marcelo Bielsa.
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While Bamford is a usually reliable and heavily used player by Bielsa, it could’ve been all so different for them had they managed to sign Leeds fan Erling Haaland, who has been tearing it up in the Bundesliga since joining Borussia Dortmund.
Evans has revealed how he offered Victor Orta the chance to sign Haaland.
“He was at Molde and would’ve been about 17. He was ripping it up, but also fervently following Leeds United – literally – wanting this and that about Leeds, all the rest of it.
“We spoke to Victor [Orta] and said, ‘look, I can bring Erling to Leeds, and the rest will be over to you’, but lots of agents talk about a mandate, will give you the mandate – but the best proof you can ever have is to physically bring a player into the club.
“So we said, ‘look, we can do that’. He said, ‘absolutely – of his age, he is the number one in the world that anybody would want. If you can bring him to Leeds, you know, we’ll do the rest’.”
TIF Thoughts on Leeds missing out on Haaland…
Looking at where Haaland is in his career at the moment and the calibre of clubs wanting to sign him, it’s safe to say that Leeds certainly missed out on signing one of the best players and strikers of his generation.
The numbers that Haaland has been putting up during his career, but more specifically in the Bundesliga (70 goals in 69 games across all competitions) are simply mind-blowing. Even though Bamford was great for Leeds last season scoring 17 goals, it’s safe to say that if they had someone like Haaland they could easily possess a bigger threat in front of goal.
It is quite something that a player from Norway is a big Leeds fan and this will be down to the fact he was born there as his dad Alf-Inge used to play for the club, and his love for Leeds was also recently highlighted when Norway faced Northern Ireland and the striker asked to swap shirts with Stuart Dallas.
It would’ve been great to have a top-quality striker that supports the club within their ranks, but it seems as if he slipped through Victor Orta’s fingers.
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