Everton passed up the chance to sign Erling Haaland for just £5m four years ago, it has been revealed.
From Blackburn choosing not to sign Zinedine Zidane to Arsenal turning down Zlatan Ibrahimovic, there are hundreds of similar stories of clubs choosing not to sign players who then go on to pursue magnificent careers.
After all, the top clubs have extensive scouting networks and analyze huge numbers of players and only sign a fraction of them.
A story has emerged about how the Toffees could have signed Haaland in 2018 for just £5million.
This has become particularly relevant now that the striker has now joined Man City and enjoyed an incredible start to life in the Premier League.
He scored 14 goals in just eight games, including three consecutive hat-tricks at home.
The 22-year-old beat Manchester United three times in a 6-3 win, with two more assists to his name.
He is undoubtedly one of the most electric players in world football right now.
Things could have turned out so much differently had Everton taken a punt on a scrawny teenage Norwegian striker.
Former Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson tweeted: “In 2018 I was at a meeting at Finch Farm with EFC, we watched a video of an 18 year old boy from Norway playing for Molde, wow he scored for fun. Bill Kenwright yelled, ‘What does Joe think?’
“‘Sign it,’ I shouted back, Robert Elstone said and I’ll never forget, ‘They want £7million’.”
The Daily Mail reports he was reportedly available for just £5m but it was deemed too much.
He ended up moving from Molde to Red Bull Salzburg and then Borussia Dortmund.
City paid around £51m to activate his Dortmund transfer release clause, around ten times more than Everton could have signed him for just a few years ago.
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