Galatasaray was close to signing Erling Braut Haaland in 2019, Fatih Terim has revealed in Turkish media. The Turkish top club had targeted the attacker, but was given an ultimatum to make an offer. Ultimately, this ensured that the transfer from Haaland to Galatasaray was never finalized. Terim stated that the clubs were already queuing up for the Norwegian star’s services in 2019.
Galatasaray watched Haaland during the Under-20 World Cup in Norway. “The scouts called me from there and told me we have to ‘act fast because there are a lot of scouts’. If we didn’t act fast they would snatch him. If we hadn’t had an ultimatum then we would have had him for eight to nine million euros can capture.” Haaland was playing for Molde at the time and would make the switch to RB Salzburg in the summer of 2019, which sold him to Borussia Dortmund last year for €20 million.
Terim can hardly imagine that Haaland had such a low transfer value at the time. “He is probably the most important player in Europe at the moment,” Terim continues. “We got in touch with him and his father through Martin Linnes, who comes from the same city as him. We were about to sign an agreement with Haaland, but unfortunately we didn’t dare to bring an unknown 20-year-old player to Turkey. for eight or nine million, when he had never left Norway. Can you imagine? Now he is worth 150 million euros.”
There has been a lot of talk about the future of Haaland for quite some time. However, the Norwegian top scorer, who is associated with several top European clubs, does not seem to be planning an interim departure from Dortmund, according to an interview with BILD. The German club has set the asking price for Haaland at 175 million euros and the coveted striker does not think that there are currently European superpowers who want or can put that amount on the table. Chelsea is seen as the main candidate to sign Haaland.
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