Manchester United and Denmark midfielder Christian Eriksen has named Roma legend Francesco Totti and Danish icon Michael Laudrup as his football idols.
The 30-year-old was taking part in a Man Utd fan Q&A session when he was asked the question about who he tried to model his game on when he was a youngster.
Michael Laudrup is obviously not a surprise given he hails from Denmark, but he says his love of Totti comes from a more unusual source – though one to which we can all probably relate.
"I had two," Eriksen told the club's official website. "Totti because I played Football Manager.
"After, it was Michael Laudrup, the one and only. Just because he was Danish and I liked his style."
Eriksen has previously said that ‘every player in Denmark’ wants to play like Michael Laudrup did, although he is the one who has been most closely compared to him.
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He has had to deal with that pressure since he first emerged, and he has spoken before about how he has dealt with it.
"I always had it, so I've learned to live with it," Eriksen said in 2014. "Every player has a different style of play, has a different talent, so people look differently at you.
“But in the position I play, you need to have a bit of pressure. A lot of players who start young always get the comparison from other people, a bit older. Or the Danish newspapers with Laudrup, but I've been used to it from early on."
Source : 90min