C.D. Leganés and Borussia Dortmund reached an agreement on Friday to sign 30-year-old Ivory Coast international Sébastien Romain Teddy Haller on a season-long loan deal. The French-born striker, who has extensive experience of elite European football, arrives at Butarque for his first LALIGA EA SPORTS experience.
Haller came through the youth ranks at French club Auxerre, making his first-team debut in the 2012/13 season. In the 2014/15 winter transfer window, he was loaned to Dutch side Utrecht, where his goalscoring ability stood out and he was bought on loan the following season. In 2017 he moved to the Bundesliga by joining Eintracht Frankfurt, winning the cup title in his first season in Germany.
The following year he made his debut in the UEFA Europa League with Eintracht, reaching the semi-finals of the tournament and scoring 20 goals between Bundesliga and European competition. A season that earned him the interest of big clubs on the continent, with West Ham United finally acquiring his services.
Experience and goals in Germany, England and the Netherlands
With the Hammers he would play a season and a half, joining Ajax Amsterdam in January 2021 on his return to the Netherlands. The 2021/22 was the season of his goalscoring explosion with 34 goals in 43 official matches, eleven of them in a historic Champions League in which he scored a hat-trick against Sporting Portugal, winning the league and the Eredivisie top scorer award.
In the summer of 2022 he was signed by Borussia Dortmund, being diagnosed shortly after being presented with testicular cancer from which he recovered happily, returning to the field in January 2023, scoring nine goals in the second half of the season. This year he was nominated for the Laureus International Comeback of the Year Award.
Champions League finalist and African Cup winner last season.
Last season, he appeared in nineteen official matches for Dortmund, including the Champions League final against Real Madrid at Wembley, and scored three goals, including one in the quarter-final of the continental competition against Atlético de Madrid at the Cívitas Metropolitano.
At international level, Haller played for all of France's youth teams, but eventually opted for the senior Ivorian side. He played in the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations and also in the 2024 Africa Cup, in which the Ivorians beat Nigeria (2-1) with a goal from the new player in the 81st minute.
The new Leganés striker now arrives at Butarque to make his debut in LALIGA EA SPORTS. The date of his presentation will be confirmed soon.