Everton rejected chance to sign Erling Haaland for £5 million, would have played in Under 23's side

Everton rejected the chance to sign Manchester City goal machine Erling Haaland as they felt £5 million was too expensive.

Haaland has been in red-hot form for City and wasted no time adjusting to life in the Premier League by notching a staggering 14 goals in just eight games.

The Norwegian star hit a third consecutive home hat-trick in his Manchester derby debut on Sunday and is on track to score 60 league goals if he continues at the current scoring rate.

City snapped up their new number nine from Borussia Dortmund by activating his £51 million release but a few years back, when Haaland was just 18, Everton could have got him for a tenth of that.

According to Mike Keegan of the Daily Mail, the Toffees were keen on Haaland when he was something of an unknown quantity at Molde.

Everton were once told £5M would be enough to sign Erling Haaland as an 18 year-old from Molde FK. The move was not sanctioned as the fee was deemed too much for a player who would have joined the Under 23s.

[via @MikeKeegan_DM]

— City Xtra (@City_Xtra) October 3, 2022

£5 million was the asking price but Everton felt it was too steep to pay. The Merseysiders weren't even signing him for the first-team, instead feeling as though he would slot into the Under 23's.

In 2018 I was at a meeting at Finch Farm with EFC we watched a video of an 18 year old Norwegian Kid played for Molde, wow😱he was scoring for fun,Bill Kenwright shouted what do think Joe? sign him I shouted back,Robert Elstone said & I will never forget “they want £7 million”😠

— Joe Anderson (@joeando58) October 2, 2022

Joe Anderson, former Mayor of Liverpool and an Everton fan, also weighed in by revealing that he watched a video of Haaland on a visit to the Finch Farm training ground.

He claims that Bill Kenwright asked him for his opinion and though he gave his seal of approval, then chief executive Robert Elstone did not want to pay over the odds.

United, Haaland's latest victims, also passed on him back in the day. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, manager at the time, worked with him and Molde and met with him in December 2019.

Haaland was a man in demand after banging the goals in for Red Bull Salzburg but Solskjaer is said to have come away from the meeting with the feeling that an agreement to sign him for €20 million was close.

Much to his frustration, Ed Woodward, United's executive-vice-chairman refused to do the deal due to the agent fees and the insistence of a release clause in the contract.

United's loss was Borussia Dortmund's gain and Haaland went on to score 82 goals in 85 appearances.

The 22-year-old is breaking all kinds of records at City and former Chelsea captain John Terry believes he could be the Premier League's greatest ever player.