Meet the former scientist behind four giant Man City murals across Manchester

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Manchester City and OKX certainly left no stone unturned to publicise their new multi-million pound training kit deal. Erling Haaland was front and centre of the latest link-up between the Blues and their cryptocurrency exchange partner, while to celebrate the launch the pair turned to one of the most iconic artists in Manchester.

Eric Akse, known as Akse-P19 brought his love of public art to the city in 1997, and his works have been a regular feature in the Northern Quarter since 2012 since he started working with the Outhouse in Stevenson Square; tributes to Marcus Rashford, George Floyd and Captain Sir Tom Moore have elevated the artist's fame even further in recent years. Also read: Nathan Ake can follow Aymeric Laporte path to new Man City role While his work has been showcased in the city for a decade, it has only actually been a full-time job for Akse for the last five years.

He had been working full-time as a scientist before taking the plunge when he was made redundant. "I'm originally from the Paris suburbs and then I moved to Manchester in 97.

When I arrived here, I didn't know that many artists and I started painting more public spaces — from street art and photo realistic art," he said. "I was studying chemistry in France at university and it was part of the Erasmus exchange so I moved to study and do an MSc at MMU [Manchester Metropolitan University] and then I stayed for a PhD and worked as a scientist for 15 years.