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Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke has explained why the club moved so quickly to beat Manchester United to the signing of Erling Haaland.
United expected to sign the 19-year-old striker in the January transfer window but saw the Norwegian international move to the Bundesliga instead. That ultimately led Ed Woodward to sign Bruno Fernandes instead, and in turn to sign Odion Ighalo as an on-loan striking option following an injury to Marcus Rashford.
Speaking to Goal, he said: “We always wanted to have a centre forward who has a different way of playing football,”
“It wasn’t about a second striker, but a tall, physically strong classic number nine. But this guy also had to come onto the market first.
“There are not many who are 1.94 meters tall and that fast. Actually, nobody else comes to mind. It was just an opportunity that you don’t get very often. “
Haaland himself denied that Mino Raiola and he had asked for too much money, rejecting the label of ‘greedy’ that some have assigned to him since the move to Germany.
“It’s kind of comical if I were to get that label. All the people closest to me know that’s not the kind of person I am. It’s really been kind of comical.
He also had time to praise Raiola, who brokered the deal after coming to represent the player after his father Alfie had performed the role in recent years. Raiola is at odds with United over the future of Paul Pogba, and also represents Jesse Lingard.
”He’s the best in the world at what he does, as simple as that. He’s the best agent.
”He gets a lot of negativity, and that’s probably because he’s doing such a great job for those he’s working for. He has helped a lot and he’s a good guy to have around.”