Haaland was not United because of the clock

Manchester United are doing their best to make Erling Haaland become red devil. Every time his name sounds in relation to a transfer, the Mancunian name appears on the list of candidates. The interest comes from afar.

Before he 'broke' the Champions League with RB Salzburg uncovering himself as a lethal scorer, Erling Haaland came to prominence in the Norwegian Mold under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, now United's manager. It was 17-18 and Molde was runner-up in the League with a young Erling scoring 12 league goals as well as four in the Europa League qualifying phase. 16 points, a remarkable mark.

When the campaign ended, Haaland decided to seek new challenges and two clubs called with interest: RB Salzburg and Manchester United. The price of the scorer? Only three million euros, although it would include some performance bonus. Thus, United advanced in the negotiations willing to sign the striker who had grown up with his legend, but the clock betrayed him.

According to the British press, a confusion with the time zones led the forward to end up signing for RB Salzburg and not for them. According to Mirror, his agent and the Molde had arranged to meet a United representative to speak at 9 a.m. from Norway, but he got confused with the time zones, and called at 9 a.m. British, that is, 10 00 Norwegian to close Haaland. What they didn't know from United is that Haaland was already closed by then.

The Mancunians lost their turn and RB Salzburg did call at the correct time, thus closing a signing that was confirmed in January 2019 for, according to Transfermarkt, 8 million euros. A value that today far exceeds in Borussia Dortmund reaching up to 110 'kilos'. Price that United will have to pay and this time it will have to be in time to gain one of the talents called to mark the next decade with their game.