One has already written himself into Premier League history – and continues, the other made history for the most consecutive goals as a young player, but now stands with woefully few goals for Manchester United this season. Both were relevant for a sporting director who saw the potential in the two Scandinavian strikers.
Many clubs admit they overlooked or turned down Erling Haaland when he was moving on from Molde. Genk’s sporting director was in no doubt about what he saw in the young Norwegian, but came too late.
“We spoke to Erling Haaland at one point, but the problem was that he had already gone too far in his talks with Salzburg.
“We got a little further in the negotiations with Rasmus Hojlund (when he was 18 years young at FC Copenhagen), Manchester United’s current striker. In the end, however, he chose Sturm Graz,” the Genk boss told Het Belang van Limburg.
The Belgian club was an early adopter, perhaps Rasmus Højlund could have benefited from a few seasons of development in the Belgian league before he was thrown into the world’s toughest league?
