The Norway international, who currently plies his trade for Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund, is one of the most coveted players in world football.
Having contributed to 53 goals from 41 games at club level in 2020/21, Haaland has European heavyweights such as Chelsea, Manchester City and Real Madrid vying for his signature.
While the likes of Chelsea are fighting for Haaland’s signature now, Leeds pulled out all the stops to bring him to Elland Road three years ago, the club’s director of football Orta has revealed.
Orta revealed that the Yorkshire outfit tried everything possible to convince Haaland, the son of former Whites star Alf-Inge Haaland and a Leeds supporter, to move to Elland Road, but were not able to do so with their limited resources at the time.
“He was here [in Leeds]“, Orta was quoted as saying by Norwegian television channel TV2.
“We tried to persuade him, but we did not have enough resources when we were in the Championship.
“He visited the gym and watched a match with us.
“He is a Leeds United supporter.
“We tried and tried, but it was not possible.“
Orta also lifted the lid on how Leeds tried to negotiate a deal with Juventus that would see the Serie A giants sign Haaland and then loan him out to the Elland Road outfit before Red Bull Salzburg snapped him up.
“We approached Juventus so that they could buy Haaland and loan him to us“, Orta said.
“But in the end, the plan from Red Bull Salzburg was very good – as always.
“They were able to offer a lot of playing time from the start.“
Chelsea are said to pushing to sign Haaland from Borussia Dortmund this summer, but the Bundesliga club are maintaining that the striker is not for sale.
And his exploits have now pushed him firmly outside Leeds’ reach.
