Erling Haaland's Strange Comment About Ex City Star Mario Balotelli as He Names Favorite Players Growing Up

• Erling Haaland made a surprise pick when choosing his two favourite players
• The Manchester City star named former Etihad favourite Mario Balotelli as a player he admired a lot growing up
• Balotelli famously assisted Sergio Aguero for the title-winning goal in the 2011/2012 campaign

Manchester City marksman Erling Haaland has named Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Mario Balotelli as two of his childhood heroes growing up.

Haaland is currently the talk of the town owing to his impressive performances since joining Manchester City from Borussia Dortmund in the summer.

He has been so impressive, in fact, that he is well on course to win the Premier League golden boot in his debut season.

Across all competitions, the Norwegian has already notched 20 goals.

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A striker of his prowess in front of the goal must surely have had players he looked up to growing up. He recently sat down with Sky Sports to give an in-depth look at his upbringing and personal life.

While speaking to Gary Neville, the 22-year-old opened up on who he looked up to as a boy and his answer was quite surprising.

He typically named his father Alfie Haaland as a player he looked up to, then added Ibrahimovic to that list.

The striker was then shown footage of him wearing the number 45 shirt, the same shirt number worn by Balotelli during his Manchester City days.

Asked who he would trust with his life to take a decisive penalty, Haaland named himself before throwing in Balotelli.

Known to very few, Balotelli has taken 19 penalties in his career, scoring all of them.

"I’d probably have to either say myself as I trust myself a lot. If not there is some good ones, I think I have to say maybe Mario Balotelli because he was maybe the best I’ve ever seen as a penalty-taker. Haaland. said.

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"You remember all the ones he did? Crazy. He was actually a really good one, so maybe me or him."

Where is Balotelli now?

Balotelli’s football career has been that of the classic football nomad.

Before Manchester City, the Italian played for Inter Milan ,and made a return to Italy, joining AC Milan once his stint with the Citizens came to an end.

He has also played for Liverpool, Nice, Marseille, Brescia, Monza and more recently Turkish side Adana Demirspor.

The striker, now 32, is in Switzerland with FC Sion.

Aguero says Haaland can be like Messi

Elsewhere, Sports Brief reported on how Manchester City icon Sergio Aguero believes Erling Haaland has all it takes to be the next Lionel Messi.

The former Premier League star cited Haaland's potency, athleticism and 'instinct for goals' as the three key things that could catapult the youngster to greatness.

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According to Aguero, Haaland will consistently challenge for the Ballon d’Or in the coming years.