Thomas Tuchel has confirmed that Chelsea are interested in Erling Haaland and says there are “regular” chats about a possible transfer for the Dortmund star.
Haaland has emerged as one of the hottest youngsters in Europe over the past two years, having shot to prominence at Red Bull Salzburg before taking his game to even greater heights in the Bundesliga.
The Norwegian attacker has scored 70 goals in 69 games since joining Dortmund for €20m (£17m) in January 2020, attracting attention from a number of top teams in the process, with the Blues reportedly among his admirers .
Tuchel has now revealed that Haaland has come up in conversation several times over the course of his reign at Stamford Bridge, including during the summer transfer window as he sought a new striker.
“We talked about Erling Haaland a couple of times, including during the transfer window. But then it seemed absolutely unrealistic and not at all feasible,” the Chelsea manager told SportBild .
“We talk about him regularly, of course, because he’s a fantastic player and clearly the defining figure at Dortmund, who is a big rival for us in the Champions League.”
Chelsea ended up signing Romelu Lukaku from Inter Milan instead, but Tuchel hasn’t ruled out the possibility of using both men in attack.
Asked if he can see Haaland joining the London club next summer despite Lukaku’s presence, the German added: “You mean two at the top [with] Lukaku and Haaland? We can talk about it!
“I don’t think we’ve been really serious about it yet, but let’s see what will happen in the next few weeks.”
Dortmund officials have repeatedly played down rumours that the 21-year-old will be sold at the end of the campaign, and current manager Marco Rose is optimistic that he can be convinced to stay for a long term .
“Just because the public is constantly talking about him leaving BVB next summer, that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case,” Rose said in August.
“In the end, Erling has to decide for himself where he sees his future. In any case, we are happy that he is currently playing for us – and, who knows, possibly it’ll be even more than just one season if we write an extraor
