BALOTELLI BEHAVING BADLY
by Isy Cardy
Inter Milan: 2006-2010
Manchester City: 2010-2013
AC Milan: 2013-2014
Liverpool: 2014- Present
Many people who take no great interest in football have nonetheless heard the name Mario Balotelli. “Super Mario” to his fans, the Palermo-born Liverpool player is renowned for his unpredictable and enigmatic behaviour both on and off the football pitch. Born to Ghanaian parents and fostered at age three to a family in the province of Brescia, he has already had a turbulent career, despite being only 24 years old. He has been involved in a litany of controversial events since the beginning of his professional football career in 2005.
“When I score, I don’t celebrate because I’m only doing my job. When a postman delivers letters, does he celebrate?” – Mario Balotelli
Where to begin with regard to his behaviour? The star believes he is unfairly picked on by the public and the media, highlighted by his decision to call his biography Why Always Me? He has had problems with most of his managers, most notably when he was at Inter Milan under Jose Mourinho. The present Chelsea manager once said of Balotelli, “He trains at 25 percent, if it was 50 percent he could be one of the world’s best players”.
In a TV interview, Mourinho
also stated that he could write
an entire comical book on
Balotelli, recalling one
incident in particular when all
his strikers were injured apart
from Balotelli. The lone striker
was given a yellow card in the
first half and so at half time,
Mourinho told him exactly
what to do and what not
to do (i.e get another
yellow card) when play
restarted. In the first
minute after half
time Balotelli – as
one might expect –
fouled another
player and
picked up a
second
booking,
leaving his team to play the rest of the match a man down.
CAREER