After playing with some of the world’s best at Inter, Milan and Manchester City, you could forgive someone like Mario Balotelli for not getting starstruck any more.
But some players transcend elite sport, eliciting the same reaction from current stars as they did from wide-eyed youngsters during their peak years.
Balotelli was just three years old when Roberto Baggio dragged Italy to the 1994 World Cup final, only to miss the decisive penalty against Brazil.
And you can see from the former Liverpool striker’s face that he is absolutely delighted to meet a man who remains one of his heroes some 11 years after retiring.
https://instagram.com/p/8B03-9Lj6I/?taken-by=mb459
As a reminder, this is the kind of magic that the Divine Ponytail was capable of…
