CD Leganés and Borussia Dortmund reached an agreement on Friday for the one-season loan of 30-year-old Ivorian international Sébastien Romain Teddy Haller. The French-born striker, with extensive experience in European elite football, arrives at Butarque in his first experience in LALIGA EA SPORTS.
Haller came through the ranks of French side Auxerre, making his first-team debut in the 2012/13 season. In the 2014/15 winter transfer market he was loaned to Dutch side Utrecht, where he was a standout goal-scorer and was acquired as a full-time player the following season. In 2017 he moved to the Bundesliga by signing for Eintracht Frankfurt, winning the Cup in his first season in Germany.
The following year he made his debut in the UEFA Europa League with Eintracht, reaching the semi-finals of the tournament and scoring twenty goals in both the Bundesliga and European competition. A season that earned him the interest of major clubs on the continent, with West Ham United eventually signing him.
Experience and goals in Germany, England and the Netherlands
He would play a season and a half with the Hammers, joining Ajax Amsterdam in January 2021 upon his return to the Netherlands. 2021/22 was the season of his goalscoring explosion with 34 goals in 43 official matches, eleven of them in a historic Champions League in which he scored four against Sporting de Portugal and won the league and the award for top scorer in the Eredivisie.
In the summer of 2022, he was signed by Borussia Dortmund, being diagnosed with testicular cancer shortly after being presented to the German club, from which he happily recovered, returning to the pitch in January 2023, scoring nine goals in that second half. This year he was nominated for the Laureus Award for Best International Comeback of the Year.
Champions League final and African Cup winner last season
Last season he played in nineteen official matches for Dortmund, including the Champions League final against Real Madrid at Wembley, and scored three goals, one of them in the quarter-final of the top continental competition against Atlético de Madrid at the Cívitas Metropolitano.
At international level, Haller was capped by all of France’s youth teams, but ultimately opted for the Ivory Coast senior team. He played in the 2022 African Cup of Nations and also in 2024, in which the Ivorians beat Nigeria (2-1) with a goal from the new player from the pepinero in the 81st minute.
The new Leganés striker has now arrived at Butarque to make his debut in LALIGA EA SPORTS. The date of his presentation will be confirmed shortly.
