Liverpool were one of seven clubs in the running to sign Erling Haaland in February before he eventually chose Manchester City, his father has revealed.
The Norwegian has announced himself as one of the most exciting talents of his generation with his rise in recent years. His form at RB Salzburg initially saw him burst onto the scene, before he moved to Borussia Dortmund.
And it quickly became clear that he would soon be moving on to even bigger and better things to advance his career.
Haaland subsequently chose Premier League champions City, where he has made a flying start to life at the Etihad Stadium.
Several other teams were linked with him, though. Real Madrid are still eyeing him and Manchester United tried to sign him just before he moved to Dortmund.
And speaking in a recently-released documentary, Haaland’s father has revealed how his son thought carefully about his next big move.
“On our list, I think City is the best team,” Alf-Inge Haaland told The Big Decision documentary on Viaplay.
“[Bayern] Munich is number two. We have Real Madrid as number three, Paris Saint-Germain as number four.
“We also have some English teams other than City who are quite good, Liverpool and Chelsea. Also, there is Barcelona. They are sort of in the same row.”
Haaland chose Man City transfer carefully
The Times carries a report on the documentary and revealed more details on Haaland’s decision.
The striker looked at whether certain clubs needed to buy a striker and other particular criteria to inform him.
And by the end of February, he had whittled his shortlist down to seven clubs.
However, Man Utd were not one of them, as he instead moved to their arch-rivals City.
The forward has since scored 14 goals in nine games for Pep Guardiola’s side. Despite the club selling two high-profile forwards this summer in Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling, Haaland has not let that affect the team.
Striker’s decision being vindicated
City did a whole lot of ground work over their Haaland deal to ensure they beat their transfer rivals to his signature.
And the player’s decision to move to the Etihad Stadium looks like the right one.
He has hit the ground running under Guardiola, settling in perfectly with the Spaniard and making goalscoring look easy.
Haaland has certainly made City look like one of the Premier League title favourites once again, despite losing two high-profile attackers.
But, the Champions League will perhaps be the bigger aim for Haaland and certainly City.
They have more than proved their credentials in winning titles, but their Champions League record has been questionable.
City regularly go deep into the competition, but have never got over the line. Last season, they lost dramatically to Real Madrid in the semi-finals after losing to Chelsea in the 2021 final.
However, there is the hope that Haaland can swing those fine margins in City’s favour to finally get them over the line and end their hoodoo in Europe.
