Ole Gunnar Solskjaer spoke with the Norwegian and his family in the winter of 2019 to set up a deal for Manchester United to sign the forward.
The Premier League giants were relatively confident of getting the deal done, but Haaland ultimately decided to move to Dortmund in January 2020.
There were claims that Dortmund offered him more money in terms of wages and Haaland felt that he would get more of a chance to develop at the Westfalenstadion rather than Old Trafford.
However, Watzke confirmed that what clinched the deal for Dortmund in that moment was their willingness to include a release clause in his contract.
He admitted that without the release clause offer Manchester United would have signed him then.
The Dortmund CEO told German daily the Ruhr Nachrichten: “At the end of the day, the truth is we gave him a release clause.
“He has to make a decision and it will come at a certain point.
“Otherwise, he would have gone to Manchester United.”
Haaland has a €75m release clause and Manchester City are prepared to pay it to take him to the Etihad this summer.
