Chelsea will come face-to-face with Manchester City's 52-goal striker when the two sides meet at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
A win for Manchester City will see them crowned champions of England for the fifth time in six seasons.
Such is the frightening nature of Haaland's scoring statistics that the Norwegian has scored the same number of goals as the entire Chelsea team combined(36).
Haaland was still at Red Bull Salzburg in Austria when Lampard expressed interest but the Chelsea hierarchy did not heed his call to bring in the prolific frontman to Stamford Bridge.
“I’ve got huge respect for him as a player, he’s a player I tried to bring to Chelsea the first time I was here,” said Lampard.
“I was really keen to get him here but obviously that couldn’t happen. His level at that point was very clear, we played against him in a pre-season game for Salzburg.
“Credit to him, I love seeing players of that level, I love seeing players of that personality and hunger to play and be the best which he’s proved himself to be. In terms of having to deal with him you have to have obviously a plan and an idea, but players of that level can make anything happen at any moment.
“I think he’s special, I thought he’d adapt straight away just (because of) his level. I think with the level of players and his record of scoring, firstly in Austria then for his country and in the Bundesliga – which is not an easy league – to come into a really good unit already.
“The rest is just credit to himself and the team around him. I did expect that, it’s not just an easy hindsight answer, I’ve got real respect for the player.
“I don’t know whether he would have decided to come here anyway but I was a big fan. There are some of those that happen that people don’t know about that could have been this way, people talk a lot about mistakes and the things that could have been in football.
“Whether he would have come I don’t know, but I was pushing big, and for a couple of other players as well. But he was the outstanding one.
“From our point I was pushing it, I’m not sure what the appetite everywhere else in the club was to do it. The competition was big to take him because he was an outstanding player. I think there was a buyout clause at the time which I think was relatively reasonable given the player (he joined Dortmund for around £17million). I don’t have enough detail to say how close it was.”
