While he has just extended his contract with Manchester City until 2034, Erling Haaland could have signed for PSG in the summer of 2021. The club had held numerous meetings with his entourage and even made him an offer, but the arrival of Lionel Messi changed everything.
Erling Haaland will return to the Parc des Princes this Wednesday evening in the Champions League, almost five years after his last visit in the colors of Borussia Dortmund. It was just before the lockdown and the match had already been played behind closed doors due to COVID. Author of a double in the first leg, Haaland remained silent at the Parc in the second leg of the round of 16 and PSG qualified.
Haaland returns to the Park, five years later
On this evening in March 2020, the PSG players had shocked the Norwegian after their 2-0 victory by reproducing his meditative celebration of the first leg. Haaland was already at the time a very promising center forward that all the big clubs wanted to recruit. But due to the big crisis linked to COVID, the 2020 summer transfer window was calm for him.
A few months later, in December 2020, PSG was however determined to launch maneuvers to recruit Haaland with a view to the potential departure of Kylian Mbappé in the summer of 2021. Injured in the thigh, the Norwegian had surrendered at the Aspetar clinic in Doha to receive treatment and Nasser Al-Khelaïfi took the opportunity to meet his father.
According to Le Parisien, the president of PSG had increased the number of meetings on site with Alf-Inge Haaland with the aim of presenting him with the sporting project of the club, which had just reached the final of the Champions League a few months earlier, and submitting to him an offer. PSG could also count at the time on the complicity of the player's agent, the late Mino Raiola, very close to Leonardo, who was still the sports director of PSG.
-PSG wanted Haaland to replace Mbappé
But if PSG was in the race to sign Haaland, the unforeseen arrival of Lionel Messi in the summer of 2021 will change everything and put an end to the trail leading to the Norwegian. By signing the Argentinian and refusing to sell Kylian Mbappé to Real Madrid, PSG no longer had the financial resources to complete the Haaland file, nor room for him in its sporting project.
Remaining in Dortmund during this famous summer of 2021, Haaland will finally sign a year later for Manchester City for 60 million euros and will win the Champions League in his first Mancunian season. If he will probably never wear the PSG jersey, especially since its extension until 2034, Haaland remains grateful for the interest shown by Al-Khelaïfi according to Le Parisien.
