'Thank you agent Mahrez' - Man City fans won't forget winger's role in Erling Haaland deal

On Monday Manchester City officially unveiled Erling Haaland as their first signing of the summer, over a month after confirming that they had agreed to activate the release clause in his contract.

After months of talks and rumours, City activated the £51m release clause in Haaland's Borussia Dortmund contract, before tying up personal terms. However, it appears that the move might have been in the works for far longer than the last few months...

You might remember that in June 2021, a video surfaced on social media of Haaland and City's Riyad Mahrez partying together on the Greek island of Mykonos. Both were enjoying their summer vacations as they had no international commitments, and Mahrez took to Twitter to address the counter in tongue-in-cheek fashion.

READ MORE: Erling Haaland reveals Riyad Mahrez role in Man City transfer after last summer encounter on holiday

The Algerian winger replied to the video with the caption 'agent Mahrez on duty,' followed by a secret agent and laughing emojis. He quickly followed that up by replying 'just having fun calm down,' but still City Twitter went into overdrive.

Now, almost exactly a year later, Mahrez has gone back to the 'just having fun' tweet and replied with the words: 'or maybe not.'

The hint that Mahrez did in fact play a role in persuading Haaland to chose City as his next club is one backed by Haaland himself.

"He [Mahrez] told me to come to City," Haaland told mancity.com, "he was right about that. He said some good things about the club."

Of course, Mahrez will have only played a small part - if that - in Haaland's decision, but City fans are still glad the pair bumped into each other on holiday 12 months ago.

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