“If we had no limit back then …”: Fatih Terim reveals near-transfer from Erling Haaland to Galatasaray Istanbul

Galatasaray coach Fatih Terim has told journalists that a few years ago the Turkish club was about to sign today’s Dortmund striker Erling Haaland.

“As you know, we watch a lot of players. Among them the most prominent name was Erling Haaland,” said Terim. The Turk said the talent was scouted as part of the 2019 U20 World Cup and a league game in Norway.

Terim stated that by then there had already been a significant number of prospects for Haaland: “[Die Scouts] called me from there and told me that we ‘have to act quickly because there are many scouts present.’ If we don’t act quickly, they’d snatch him away. If we hadn’t had a limit back then, we could have signed him for eight to nine million euros. “

Galatasaray – Terim: “Faced with an agreement” with Haaland

A sum that seems almost ridiculous from today’s perspective, as the 67-year-old emphasized: “He’s probably Europe’s most important player at the moment. We got in touch with him and with his father through Martin Linnes, who comes from the same city as he is We were about to come to an agreement with the player, but unfortunately we don’t want to imagine what would have happened in Turkey if we had signed an unknown 20-year-old for eight or nine million euros who had never left Norway before You can imagine it. Now it’s worth 150 million euros. “

Haaland is now one of the most popular players in the world. The Norwegian has already broken a number of records in the jerseys of his ex-club RB Salzburg and his current employer Borussia Dortmund and was instrumental in qualifying for the Champions League and winning the Black and Yellow Cup last season.