Why Haaland picked Dortmund over Man Utd in 2020

Stefan Bienkowski

• 28 Oct 2021 17:12 BST
• 7 min read

Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke has revealed that the club’s promise of game time is what convinced Erling Haaland to join them over Manchester United.

The Norwegian talent made the move to Dortmund in January 2020 for just £18 million after a successful spell at RB Salzburg.

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Although few would have expected Haaland to become the global super star that he is now 18 months later, there were still a number of clubs that were interested in signing him alongside Dortmund.

According to Watzke, Man Utd were another potential bidder and even offered the player better terms.

However, the Dortmund boss believes the club’s reputation for developing young players spoke louder than a larger salary.

’The offer from Man Utd was better’

“Our offer for Haaland was not the best," said Watzke in an interview with Sport 1.

"The offer from Manchester United was better. However Mino Raiola realized that Erling [Haaland] was better off with us… We have no inhibitions in letting them play."

He added: "People realise that highly talented players make the breakthrough fastest with us.

“That is a resounding argument for the players, the players' parents and the advisors.

"The fact that we discover players on our own is long gone. But we get them. We have no inhibitions about letting 17-year-olds play."

Lessons for Man Utd to learn?

Watzke’s revelations are not only encouraging for Dortmund but also extremely critical to Man Utd’s appeal as a club.

While the Premier League giants can perhaps match any club in the world when it comes to salary demands or transfer fees, the fact that Haaland apparently didn’t think he could develop properly as a young player at Old Trafford is rather daming.

Whether the player ends up at Man Utd one day remains to be seen, but the club could have certainly saved a lot of money and bother had they simply proved to be a good place for young players to develop when Haaland was making up his mind last January.