The summer of 2021 will forever live in infamy for Barcelona, as the club's financial struggles resulted in the departure of their greatest ever player: Lionel Messi.
Later in that summer, Jordi Cruyff—son of Barcelona legend Johan Cruyff—joined the club's sporting hierarchy as one of the top decision makers. In the aftermath of Messi's departure, Barcelona were adamant on securing a top level reinforcement. Enter, Erling Haaland.
The now Manchester City striker has long been admired by Barcelona higher-ups. In an interview with SPORT, Cruyff revealed that during his time working for the Catalans, they dreamt of seeing Haaland with a Blaugrana shirt.
“It's true, it was a little bit of a dream. We were dreaming of a Haaland or Lewandowski,“ Cruyff said when asked if there was a transfer he would've liked to make. “We wanted to have a player that made an impact. Like a signature signing that said "we're back, we're here to compete for everything“. I think the club needed that at the time.“
“What happened is that it was an impossible operation,“ Cruyff added. “Regardless of him [Haaland] being open to it, it was a transfer we couldn't do and that’s it.“
Barcelona were interested in signing Haaland in the summer of 2022. In the end, Manchester City completed the transfer of the Norway international. The Catalans pivoted and instead acquired Robert Lewandowski from Bayern Munich.
Still, as recently as last October, reports pointed out that Barcelona president Joan Laporta was keen on making Haaland Barcelona’s marquee signing for the club’s return to the renovated Camp Nou. Haaland has since inked a new 10-year contract with Man City, making it even harder to envision him ever donning the Blaugrana shirt.
Haaland sits alongside Nico Williams and many others on the list of Barcelona’s dream transfer targets that never came to fruition.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Ex-Barcelona Director Speaks on ‘Impossible’ Pursuit of World Class Striker.