Erling Haaland covered up a young fan's Manchester United badge as he posted for a photo.
The Manchester City star is in his homeland on international duty, scoring twice for Norway as they saw off Cyprus on Tuesday night. He is an immensely popular figure, even with those who support the team on the red half of Manchester. Haaland has earned himself legendary status at the Etihad after a record-breaking debut year.
The striker has smashed Premier League milestones en route to picking up three trophies in his first year, including the Champions League. He made his loyalties known as he took a photo with a young fan donning the red shirt, covering up the badge with his hand as he smiled.
Haaland, as he walked away, also joked in his native tongue that the supporter needed to "get a new shirt". The forward enjoyed playing against United this term, scoring a hat-trick in his first ever Manchester derby as City ran riot at the Etihad. He also helped Pep Guardiola's side win the FA Cup against their neighbours at Wembley.
The irony being, had things turned out differently, Haaland could be wearing red instead of blue. City moved quickly to sign the striker from Borussia Dortmund last summer, but earlier in his career Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who was at Molde with Haaland, recommended to United that they sign the player.
Solskjaer later found himself in charge at Old Trafford and, when it became clear Haaland would be on the move, said on speculation: "He [Haaland] knows what he wants to do and he knows what he's gonna do. So I don't have to give any advice to any other teams' players."
Haaland opted to move to the Bundesliga, where he continued to thrive, and his former agent, Mino Raiola, failed to understand why there was so much noise regarding a switch to Old Trafford.
He told Sky Sports: "People say that Manchester United wanted to be out [of the deal], I don't believe in it, if so it's very strange in my opinion. I think were was good contact between Norwegian Ole Solskjaer and himself as they know each other very well, it was just a normal decision from the player that at this moment he had a better feeling to sign for Dortmund and that it would be the right move fo his career.
"I don't understand all the fuss, why people are talking so much about Manchester United when there was 12 clubs interested in him and he had serious talks with every one of them."
