Despite poor team performance in the last few weeks at Bundesliga soccer club Borussia Dortmund, Erling Haaland continues to impress across the board in his first full season in Germany. He has scored 14 goals so far in 13 games this season for BVB and is absolutely certain in Dortmund’s Sturmzentrale.
In the case of rival RB Leipzig, those responsible are still annoyed to this day that they did not commit the Norwegian world-class attacker himself, although he was previously under contract with sister club RB Salzburg. There were contacts, even a visit from Haaland to the Red Bulls in Leipzig.
Especially with regard to the moderately performing Leipzig Sturm series, it is obvious that the 20-year-old would have looked all too well on the team of head coach Julian Nagelsmann. The most accurate RB players have just four hits. Among them are Yussuf Poulsen, midfielder Emil Forsberg and full-back Angelino.
Sports director Markus Krösche revealed that there was still regular contact between RB Leipzig and the Haaland side until the turn of the year 2019/2020: “This was definitely the reason why we were still in the race for a commitment in winter 19/20” , he was quoted in the “Sport Bild”.
Ultimately, financial reasons were the main reason why the star striker went to the direct competitor in Dortmund, for whom he has scored 27 goals in 28 Bundesliga games since January 2020.
RB boss Mintzlaff explains the failure at Haaland
The fact that at the time of the talks with the youngster and his advisors, the previous sports director and head coach Ralf Rangnick was no longer involved in the negotiations had a negative effect on the Saxons. He had previously proven his ability to persuade and negotiate with young talents in many cases.
“In the Haaland case, it is correct that Ralf Rangnick was not involved in the final talks. Looking back, it would certainly not have hurt if he had supported the talks at the time,” said RB managing director Oliver Mintzlaff in “Sport Bild”.
However, Mintzlaff emphasized that the deal with the ex-coach would not have been possible: “Erling Haaland would not have come to us with Ralf Rangnick either, because on the one hand the overall financial package was too high, and on the other hand we had a striker in Timo Werner who at the time had 18 goals and BVB had a vacancy in the position. “
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