Former Molde chief scout John Vik has revealed how Ole Gunnar Solskjaer urged Manchester United to sign Erling Haaland five years ago.

Haaland is now starring with Manchester City.

But Vik told the Athletic: "I remember one day when I was watching Erling train. He had been with us seven or eight months, he was training really hard and he had become part of the squad. I walked down to see Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who was Molde's manager, and I said, 'You have to call Manchester United, mate – this is unreal what we are looking at'.

"Me and Ole understood that this kid was so good we were not going to be able to keep him. Ole agreed with absolutely everything. 'I will put a phone call in', he said, 'they need to hear about this kid'.

"We had friends at United. I used to work closely with United, in the early 2000s, and most of the guys I knew had gone. But Ole was Ole. 'For God's sake', I said, 'call Nicky Butt (then United's head of academy), or call somebody, because this kid is'.

"This was even before Erling had really started to play for Molde properly. Ole put the phone call in. So the name was put in. Then, how or whether United followed it up, I don't know."