Barcelona Turned Down An 18-Year-Old Erling Haaland To Make Bizarre Loan Signing

Barcelona turned down the chance to sign an 18-year-old Erling Haaland in January 2019 - opting to loan Kevin-Prince Boateng instead.

Haaland has become one of the world's top youngsters in the last 18 months and now plays for Borussia Dortmund.

But he could've been plying his trade at the Camp Nou as former director Javier Bordas revealed the club had a shot at signing Haaland when he played for RB Salzburg.

When asked why the 20-year-old didn't make a move, Bordas told Mundo Deportivo: "Because they told me that [he] was not a Barca player.

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"I understand that Bartomeu ignores the technical secretary, but the truth is that these players could have come, and then you don't know what performance they are going to give."

Boateng arrived that January and made just four appearances in his six month spell before joining Fiorentina.

Meanwhile, Norwegian international Haaland has scored 10 goals in 10 games for Dortmund this season.

Another starlet Barcelona's hierarchy passed on signing is Kylian Mbappe.

The Spanish giants were in the market for a forward in 2017 following Neymar's departure and signed Ousmane Dembele.

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But Bordas says Mbappe, who joined Paris Saint-Germain from Monaco that summer, was available.

"Yes, when we were ready to sign Dembele, [Josep Maria] Minguella called me to tell us that Mbappe was within reach.

"I spoke with Bartomeu and he told me to look at him. I called his father and he told me that he was not going to go to Madrid because Cristiano [Ronaldo], [Karim] Benzema and [Gareth] Bale were there and instead he could go to Barca because Neymar was not there.

"The president of Monaco preferred for him to go to Barca so as not to strengthen PSG, a direct rival. And for 100 million euros it could have been done.

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"But Robert preferred Dembele and Pep Segura supported him. The explanation was that Mbappe plays for himself and Dembele plays for the team.

"And since a winger like Neymar left, Robert preferred a winger more than a finisher."

Barcelona are currently searching for a way to negotiate paycuts with their top stars.

They reported losses of £88 million in their most recent financial report due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Topics: Football News, Football, Barcelona, Transfers, Erling Haaland, Kevin-Prince Boateng, La Liga

Daniel Marland

Daniel is a journalist for SPORTbible and he has previous experience with Manchester United. He has spoken to some of the biggest names in sport including Rio Ferdinand, Peter Crouch, WWE COO Triple H and WWE legend The Undertaker. May or may not do a decent impression of Jamie Carragher.

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