Not so long ago, Erling Haaland was still a rising star in the game.

The No.9 had made a sensational start to life at Dortmund after joining in January 2020, with a hat-trick off the bench in his first game and six goals in his opening nine matches. The Champions League was supposed to be a stiffer test, yet when Paris Saint-Germain rocked up to Signal Iduna Park Haaland smashed in two.

Literally smashed, in the case of the second. After one touch with his left boot on the edge of the area, the second rockets into the back of the net so hard that it sounded like it rattled the entire stadium. This was a striker PSG and the rest of the world would have to be very wary of.

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Haaland's goal and the lotus celebration he produced twice that night may have got PSG backs up, but what really riled them was a social media post ahead of the second leg of their last-16 clash. On the eve of the game an image surfaced supposedly from Snapchat of Haaland in his Dortmund tracksuit with Paris written on and the caption: "My city, not yours."

It wasn't genuine, yet it genuinely got to the PSG players. Not only did Neymar copy Haaland's celebration when he scored in a 2-0 win that knocked Dortmund out but the whole team posed like that on the pitch after the game to mock the 20-year-old; in case he had missed that, Neymar stuck a picture of his celebration on Instagram with the caption: "Paris our city, not yours."

If that bothered Haaland, he didn't let it show. "No, not really," he said when asked if it had upset him. "I think they helped me a lot to get meditation out in the world and to show the whole world that meditation is an important thing so I’m thankful that they helped me with that."

A global pandemic would soon put everything into perspective, and when football resumed PSG had their best chance to win the Champions League but lost in the final to Bayern Munich. They have since been knocked out by City, Real Madrid, Bayern again and then last year Dortmund, who quote-tweeted their 2020 celebration picture as they enjoyed their revenge.

PSG's upset at Haaland did not stop them becoming a potential destination for him when he decided to leave Dortmund in 2022. They ranked fourth in his list of clubs that he could join as he mulled over the best choice for his career.

City were top though, and as Haaland returns to Paris to play for the first time since he was brutally mocked he does so as a Champions League winner having lifted the trophy in his first year at the Etihad.

Haaland will look to make Paris his city to keep City in the hunt for the trophy he - and the French club - craves the most.