According to ESPN, Erling Haaland remains a priority signing for Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Since the turn of the year, Haaland has been a target of the Red Devils, with Solskjaer meeting the player. But the plug was pulled from a deal.
The 20-year-old Norwegian forward started his youth career at Bryne in 2006 and over the next decade, progressed through their youth setup.
In 2015, he was promoted to the first-team and went on to make 16 appearances for them. After two and half seasons, he signed for Molde FK. He had decent numbers for Molde in 50 games, with 20 goals and 6 assists.
RedBull Salzburg signed him in 2019 and that was where his path to stardom started. In 2019, Haaland broke onto the scenes with a Champions League hat-trick against KRC Genk. Despite playing just 27 games for the side, Haaland had already scored 29 goals and assisted 7 (source – Transfermarkt).
In January this year, he joined Borussia Dortmund. He has continued on his merry way, with 26 goal contributions in 23 games for them. Haaland was a regular part of the Norway youth sides and has 7 senior appearances to date, with 6 goals to his name.
If we take a look at Manchester United’s attacking options for the season, they have 3 players who can take up the No.9 role. Martial and Cavani are the two choices, and Odion Ighalo will remain as backup until his deal expires in January next year.
Cavani, who United signed this season is on a short-term deal of just one year, which can be extended if needed. This means that the club needs another striker soon enough. Add to that, Martial’s hot and cold form through a season and you can see that the team needs a reliable, long-term striker to lead the line.
In Haaland, Manchester United would be getting a long-term solution to their striker problems. Even if Martial is there at the club, the club should not hesitate to bring in the Norwegian. A club of Manchester United’s calibre should not have just one recognized striker in the team.
Erling Haaland would be a very useful signing for Manchester United. He is young and already showing glimpses of being a world-class attacker. He clearly ticks all the boxes for Manchester United.