'I looked up to Kevin-Prince Boateng' - Nashville's Mukhtar

Nashville SC midfielder Hany Mukhtar has named Kevin-Prince Boateng as one of the players he "looked up to".

The 25-year-old German-born of Sudanese descent moved to the United States from Brondby ahead of the 2020 Major League Soccer season.

Mukhtar's formative years started out with Hertha Berlin in 2015, before moving on to Benfica, Salzburg on loan and then Brondby.

Mukhtar is known to have the name Prince on his Instagram page and he reveals that the Ghanaian was an inspiration to him.

Boateng, like Mukhtar, was born and raised in Berlin and started out with Hertha in 2005.

"As a boy from Berlin at Hertha, I looked up to Kevin-Prince Boateng," Mukhtar told Goal and SPOX.

"His career is fascinating. Then a lot of people called me Prince in my youth. It became a kind of nickname. I used it on my profile on Facebook at the time and continued to use it on Instagram."

Mukhtar also explains how he came up the hashtag #teamdreambig on his Instagram profile.

"Yes, I came up with the #teamdreambig. And the biggest dream that can be realized is always the next one," he continued.

"Every day I try to take a big step forward in my development."

Asides from Boateng, Mukhtar also identified Barcelona and Real Madrid legends Ronaldinho and Zinedine Zidane as his other role models in the game.

"As a little boy, I was always fascinated by the stars who could do something special with the ball. Like Ronaldinho and Zinedine Zidane. I loved watching them," Mukhtar said.

Mukhtar has made two appearance for Nashville this season, playing 90 minutes in their defeats to Atlanta United and Portland Timbers, before the league was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic that has affected more than 100,000 people in the United States.

Mukhtar is eligible to play for Sudan at senior level through his father.

He has been capped by Germany at youth level, winning the 2014 European Under-19 Championship in Hungary.