Chelsea have been given the lowdown on Erling Haaland by his former Borussia Dortmund teammate, Achraf Hakimi.
Both Hakimi and Haaland are hot on Roman Abramovich’s radar as he looks to build his Premier League title challenging ensemble.
Sky Sports reported yesterday that a bid for Hakimi had already been placed by the Blues. However, it fell short of Inter Milan’s asking price.
No official move has been made for Haaland yet, but Chelsea are continuing to work out their best course of action to snap him up.
Dortmund duo
Dortmund’s sensational striker definitely won’t come cheap, which is no surprise considering the season he’s just enjoyed.
In 41 appearances, he scored 41 goals.
That’s actually three fewer than he managed in 2019/20, where he was playing alongside Hakimi with BVB.
Back when the Moroccan right-back was performing in the Bundesliga, he gave a glowing review of Haaland that should excite Chelsea followers.
“When you have an attacker like him, a goal scorer who scores a lot, who lives for that, it helps enormously,” said the Milan defender in an interview with Tele Foot.
“We hope that he will continue to score for a long time like that. It is good for the team and he wants to finish as top scorer in the competition (Champions League).”
Gone their seperate ways
Ironically, it was actually Hakimi who left Dortmund that following summer to join Inter.
It was a move that worked out very well for the 22-year-old. He helped I Nerazzurri to their first Serie A title for a decade.
Haaland meanwhile remained in Germany and picked up where he left off from the previous campaign.
Now, the duo could well reunite at Stamford Bridge before too long.
What could Haaland add?
Scoring has been something of an issue for Chelsea under Thomas Tuchel, so Hakimi’s comments labelling him as such a prolific goalscorer appeal.
Only once did Chelsea manage to bag more than three goals in a game under Tuchel last season, a 4-1 Premier League win over Crystal Palace.
If they want to challenge for the league title once again, the need for an efficient centre-forward is paramount.
Haaland has proven he can provide that in abundance, domestically and on the European stage.