Erling Haaland’s meteoric rise is unlike anything we’ve seen in football for a long time.
Of course, other players have burst onto the scene and impressed at a young age, but we’ve not seen anything quite like this in recent memory.
The Dane is the Champions League’s joint-top goalscorer, averaging a strike every 46 minutes. In the Bundesliga his record is even better, averaging a goal every 38 minutes.
Those are the sort of numbers you’d struggle to even replicate on a video game.
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It seems as though Haaland is heading for massive things, and his dream of winning the Premier League with Leeds United probably seems like a distant memory. He’s now ripping it up on Europe’s biggest stage while the Yorkshire club remain in the Championship.
However, things could have been so very different.
Leeds made an offer for Haaland back in the summer of 2018, but they were priced out of a move as RB Salzburg snapped him up instead.
On face value it’s hard to find any flaws in Leeds’ approach for him, they spotted the player, but they simply didn’t have enough money. However, you have to wonder why they would then go on to spend £10m on Patrick Bamford that same summer.
Perhaps it was his wages that were getting in the way for Leeds, but The Sun reported that Haaland was on just £20k a week at Salzburg, while Leeds are still happily paying Bamford £35k.
Convincing him to join wouldn’t have been much of an issue either, the striker himself has said that his dream is to play for Leeds and win the Premier League with them.
When Haaland first burst onto the scene it looked as if the Yorkshire club had missed out on a striker who could have helped fire them to the top-flight, but his run just isn’t stopping and the reality is that Leeds may have passed up the opportunity to sign a true world-beater in favour of Bamford.
It’s something United may forever live to regret, and with Haaland being just 19 years old they may still have over a decade to mull over this failed transfer.
In other news, Leeds may want to give this loanee a chance upon his return.