Mario Balotelli was 18 months old when Eric Cantona trod the turf in English football for the first time on a windswept February afternoon at Oldham's Boundary Park in 1992.

Whether the Manchester City forward has grown up much during the subsequent two decades is a moot point after his latest controversial act, in which he appeared to kick Tottenham midfielder Scott Parker in the head during the 3-2 victory at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

The similarities between Balotelli and Cantona increase by the week, with the Italian matching the Frenchman for decisive contributions, to both scorelines and headlines.

Ban doubled

In 1992, Cantona had pitched up at Leeds United after walking out on French club Nimes in disgust at having been given a one-month suspension for throwing a ball at a referee.

The ban was doubled after Cantona called each member of the disciplinary panel an idiot. The Premier League now has another enfant terrible.

Balotelli, the dart-throwing, firework-releasing man-child, has become the modern incarnation of Cantona, despite the motorbike-riding Frenchman's passion for art, acting and Gitanes. For neither cares much for authority or convention.

Balotelli, as wild as he can be, is a man of the people who will think nothing of offering a £50 tip to the guy who has just cleaned his car or a grateful Big Issue vendor on Deansgate. Cantona rejected the Millionaires' Row lifestyle of his United teammates and chose to live in a modest semi-detached house in the Salford suburb of Boothstown.

Adulation

And, while their brilliance on a football pitch has ensured adulation and iconic status, both men possess a dark side. Balotelli has been sent off three times in his 18 months at City.

The dismissal against Dynamo Kiev last season was for a kung-fu style challenge on an opponent, while his brush with Parker evoked memories of Cantona's dismissal against Swindon Town in March 1994 for stamping on John Moncur.

Four days later, Cantona was dismissed again during a tempestuous 2-2 draw with Arsenal at Highbury, with Sir Alex Ferguson bemoaning the piercing focus on the player, whose temperament had been described as the Achilles' heel of United's title challenge. Balotelli is facing similar accusations.

To suggest that Balotelli is central to City's ambitions, as Cantona was to United's in the mid-1990s, would overstate his importance to Roberto Mancini's team, but he is an emerging talent.

Mancini indulges Balotelli as Ferguson did Cantona. Both managers turn a blind eye to indiscretions in the hope that their faith is rewarded on the pitch.

—The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2012