Former Everton director of football Steve Walsh has recalled how close the club came to signing Erling Haaland as a teenager for just a few million pounds.
Walsh, speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live Sport, has revisited one of the more remarkable transfer stories from his two years at Everton.
According to the former director of football, Haaland was 17 when Everton had the opportunity to sign him for a bargain fee.
Walsh has previously gone into more detail about what happened. In 2019, he claimed he had Haaland and his father Alfie at Everton with a €4m – then around £3.4m – deal in place.
“The club wouldn’t back me,” Walsh said at the time.
It sounds extraordinary now. It was rather less obvious then.
Haaland really did visit Everton
There is no doubt that Haaland was on Everton’s radar.
Aaron Lennon, who was at the club at the time, later recalled meeting the Norwegian at the training ground.
Lennon said Walsh introduced Haaland to him and explained who his father was, adding that he hoped Everton would sign the young striker.
The move never happened.
Haaland instead left Bryne for Molde in 2017 before joining Red Bull Salzburg and then Borussia Dortmund. By 2022, he was a Manchester City player and already established among Europe’s leading goalscorers.
Walsh’s time at Everton remains complicated. Plenty of money was spent during his spell as director of football without producing the improvement expected under Farhad Moshiri.
But his eye for players was rarely in question.
He has also said Everton passed on the chance to sign Andy Robertson and Harry Maguire from Hull City for a combined £20m.
Haaland, though, is the one that stands out.
He was inside Everton’s training ground. Walsh wanted him. And a deal which would have cost only a few million pounds went no further.
