It is no secret that Barcelona have held a long-standing interest in Erling Haaland. The Blaugrana admire the Manchester City superstar and have explored the possibility of signing him in the past.
A move for him was considered back in 2022 with the player himself understood to have given his ‘OK’ to the transfer. But the finances did not allow for such an operation and he ended up joining Manchester City.
Barcelona could have signed Haaland much before that
Now, though, former Barcelona director Javier Bordas has revealed that the club could have signed Haaland much before 2022.
Indeed, as per Bordas, the Norwegian international could have ended up at the Catalan club when he was still playing for RB Salzburg.
Haaland has been a dream target for Barça. (Photo by PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
The centre-forward would have cost just €20 million at the time, Bordas revealed, although the Catalans would have had to shell out another €20 million in commission for his then-agent Mino Raiola.
“Haaland wants to come to Spain. He wanted to come to Barça. He would have cost us €20 million for Salzburg and another €20 million for Raiola. It had already exploded,” he said (h/t El Chiringuito TV).
But the presence of Luis Suarez at the club dissuaded Barcelona from pulling the trigger, the former director said.
“There were conversations, Suarez was there and the coaches decided not to sign him.”
Barcelona to go after Haaland in 2025
Haaland continues to feature on the wishlist of Barcelona and club president Joan Laporta now has grand plans to go after the Manchester City superstar in the summer of 2025.
With Real Madrid set to sign Kylian Mbappe, Barça plan on countering that with the signing of Haaland and believe that they will be in better health financially to go after the goalscoring phenom come 2025.