For many fans he is the new hope of Borussia Dortmund, Erling Haaland plays at BVB from the second half of the season, The Dortmund contracted the 19-year-old Norwegian international for the fixed transfer of 20 million euros from Red Bull Salzburg – and prevailed against well-known competitors such as Juventus or Manchester United. But how did BVB manage the transfer coup with Haaland, who completed his first unit in Dortmund on Friday? The English language portal The Athletic wants to have found answers – External consultant Matthias Sammer is said to have played an important role.
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Markus Pilawa cited BVB’s chief scout in the portal’s report. Dortmund has had Haaland for years, even before moving to Red Bull Salzburg in January 2019, closely observed. According to Pilawa, the 1.94-meter center forward came into focus at a U17 tournament in Scandinavia in 2016: “We didn’t go to the tournament specifically to watch Haaland, but it got interesting to us very quickly.”, said the BVB chief scout. BVB’s scouting staff put in a lot of work for Haaland: “We saw every game of his, either in person or on video,” says Pilawa. The BVB team has not missed a game since its professional debut for the Norwegian club Molde FK in 2017.
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And the persistence did not seem to pay off at first, reports the Dortmund observer boss. During Haaland’s time in Molde there had already been discussions about whether the young Norwegian should be committed to BVB youth, but then the scorer (49 goals in 77 competitive games for Molde and Salzburg) decided to move to Austria: “It made it easier for us to monitor him regularly,” explains Pilawa.
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As a result, according to Pilawa’s count, BVB observed Haaland 28 times on site in Salzburg. According to the report from The Athletic have also found Matthias Sammer. The external BVB consultant is said to have traveled to Austria several times to assess the training performance and morale of the Norwegian jewel.
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The Haaland’s gala performances in the current Champions League season (Eight goals in six games) put Dortmund under pressure according to the report. In order not to lose the super talent observed for years to other top clubs, the BVB officials and players had opted for a real “charm offensive”, Sports director Michael Zorc and managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke would have made the player’s athletic perspective and atmosphere at BVB palatable. Father Alf-Inge was convinced with the professional structures in Dortmund. And not only that: Led by Danish midfielder Thomas Delaney, Dortmund is said to have launched numerous “WhatsApp” messages to Haaland Junior.
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