Three days before Erling Haaland’s secret medical on Sunday, December 29, Borussia Dortmund were still unsure whether they had won the race for this winter’s most coveted player. This, like so many modern transfers, had been a move with a long backstory.



It started in August 2016, at the Nordic Under-17 Football Championship. “We didn’t go there to specifically to watch Erling Haaland but he quickly became of interest to us,” BVB chief scout Markus Pilawa tells The Athletic.



The 16-year-old was playing as a winger on either flank at the time. Following his first few minutes in the first team as a budding professional at Molde, Dortmund upgraded their scouting frequency from “occasional” to “permanent”.



“We watched every single game of his either in person or on video,” Pilawa says. “There was a debate whether it made sense to bring him into the club for the academy but he chose to go to...