Had things worked out differently, Erling Haaland would be lining up for Chelsea against Manchester City when the two teams meet at Stamford Bridge on Thursday.
Haaland will be looking to continue his brilliant goalscoring season as City hunt down leaders Arsenal in the Premier League title race.
But had Chelsea had their way, the Norwegian striker would be playing for them. The Blues twice missed out on signing Haaland, first in 2019 when Frank Lampard was manager and then again in 2021 when Thomas Tuchel was in charge.
Chelsea first wanted to sign Haaland after facing him in a pre-season friendly when he was forging his reputation with Red Bull Salzburg.
“I tried to sign him for Chelsea and it was not to be,” revealed Lampard recently. “It was clear in our pre-match preparation what this boy was. Fair play to him.”
Haaland went on to score 28 goals in the first half of the following season before he joined Borussia Dortmund in a £17million deal in January 2020.
After a blistering season-and-a-half in Germany, Chelsea then tried to sign Haaland again in the summer of 2021.
The Blues made Haaland their top transfer target when they were searching for a new striker but failed to convince the then 21-year-old to take the step to join a big club early, and instead signed Romelu Lukaku for £97.5m.
Haaland went on to join Manchester City last summer and this season has scored more Premier League goals (21) than the entire Chelsea team (20).
