Manchester City Striker Erling Haaland Makes Bold Comparison Between Himself and Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema

• New Manchester City striker Erling Haaland has revealed his ambition is to try and emulate Karim Benzema
• Benzema has been in fine form and is a clear favourite for this year's Ballon d'Or award
• Haaland has, meanwhile, hit the ground running in the Premier League with three goals so far

Erling Haaland has revealed that Real Madrid's striker Karim Benzema is his inspiration. Haaland has opened up that he would like to replicate Benzema's achievements in a City shirt.

Haaland joined Manchester City earlier in the summer after the Premier League Champions activated his release clause from Borussia Dortmund.

As expected, he has walked into Pep Guardiola's starting lineups, featuring from the start in all of the four games that City have played so far this season.

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The Norwegian has three goals and an assist in his three Premier League appearances. Speaking to FourFourTwo, as quoted by Manchester Evening News, Haaland marvelled at how Benzema's career had panned out.

You can never stop looking for new ways to become better. Look at Karim Benzema at Real Madrid. He's 34 now, and suddenly he’s developed into an even better player over the last couple of years – that's insanely good. I want to always do that.

Real Madrid were also in the race to sign Benzema before City snapped him up. It is believed that the club's president Florentino Perez has set his eyes on the 22-year-old as a long-term replacement for Benzema.

Explaining what Erling Haaland's celebrations mean

Sports Brief had earlier reported that apart from his lethal nature in front of goal, Erling Haaland has also captured the world's attention with his celebration styles.

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So famous and unique have his celebrations been that one of them has been incorporated into the famous video game by EA Sports, FIFA.

But what do these celebrations mean for the Norwegian striker? Does he just do them for the sake of it, or do they have a meaning like Lionel Messi's fingers pointing to the sky celebration?