Six years on from Liverpool’s Mario Balotelli transfer gamble, the once lauded Inter Milan and Manchester City striker is now one of football’s lost talents
When Mario Balotelli hangs up his boots, he should have enough stories in his locker to make it as a successful raconteur on the after dinner circuit.
“I could write a book of 200 pages of my two years at Inter [Milan] with Mario, but the book would not be a drama – it would be a comedy,” Jose Mourinho once said.
Early on in his career, Balotelli was described as ‘unmanageable’ by Mourinho… and the Portuguese hasn’t been proved wrong
Just think about what would have to be left out!
Now 30 years old, there are still more chapters still to be written about him.
It has been six years since Liverpool – his last English club – took a gamble on him and Mourinho’s words raise an important point about the striker, who has ultimately failed to live up to his huge potential so far.
Sure, Balotelli has a decent haul of trophies to boast about, including Premier League and Serie A titles, as well as the Champions League.
But when someone says ‘Balotelli’ you can’t help but think of all the antics off the pitch or the little effort made on the pitch on many occasions.
Mourinho, his manager at Inter, has plenty more tales about Balotelli, this one perfectly highlighting his attitude problems.
“I told him to be in my office at 2 o’clock for a meeting. He was not there. When I called him, he went to the Formula One qualification on Saturday for the race on the Sunday.
“I told him ‘Mario, you have to come to my office’ and he was saying meetings in your office I can have every day, but to see the Formula One, is only once a year in Italy. A couple of days later I had to laugh then.”
Balotelli not taking the game seriously has been a theme throughout his career
Balotelli was part of Inter’s Champions League winning side in 2009/10, but almost cost his side some valuable points during a difficult group stage match at Russian side Rubin Kazan.
Mourinho explained: “In that match I had all my strikers injured. No Diego Milito, no Samuel Eto’o, I was really in trouble and Mario was the only one.
“Mario got a yellow card in the 42nd minute, so when I got to the dressing room at half-time I spend about 14 minutes of the 15 available speaking only to Mario.
“I said to him: ‘Mario, I cannot change you, I have no strikers on the bench, so don’t touch anybody and play only with the ball. If we lose the ball, no reaction. If someone provokes you, no reaction. If the referee makes a mistake, no reaction.’
“The 46th minute – red card!”
Despite all the nonsense that comes with him, most of Balotelli’s teammates seem to like him as a person. This is perfectly highlighted by some of his former comrades at Manchester City, who he joined in the summer of 2010 from Inter.
Even James Milner, the consummate professional and thus polar opposite to Balotelli, couldn’t help but have some love for ‘Super Mario’.
On some of the things Balotelli would get up to at City, Milner revealed: “Throwing darts at people, bumping into cars in the training ground, wearing stupid gloves on his head.
“But I liked Mario. He was an unbelievable player, great penalty taker, good finisher, crazy and needed a rocket at times, obviously. I had a pretty good relationship with him so I never had too many problems with him.”
Stories of Balotelli nearly burning his house down while playing with fireworks indoors did nothing to help his bad boy image but Sergio Aguero believes there’s a vulnerability about Balotelli, despite the circus that surrounds him.
“A lot of his behaviour, I feel, came from a feeling he had that he was somehow different and maybe a little insecure.
“I couldn’t help but wind him up from time to time, calling him silly names and toying with him but he knew it was always in an affectionate way because I loved Mario – everyone loved him, though he drove us nuts at times. He used to say that nobody loved him and I’m sure he believed that was true, though it was anything but.”
Aguero raises an interesting idea about Balotelli’s personality
There were more stories of Balotelli falling out with teammates, then manager Roberto Mancini and training ground fights.
Both the player and the club reached the end of the line in 2013 and he went back to his homeland, signing for AC Milan.
He came back to the Premier League a year-and-a-half later – Liverpool opting to gamble on him.
Shortly after signing him, then-Reds boss Brendan Rodgers was asked what Balotelli would bring to the squad. Rodgers jokingly responded: “Trouble!”
Balotelli wasn’t responsive to Rodgers’ excellent man-management skills
But that was not too far from the truth as his time at Anfield was woeful, scoring just one Premier League goal for them.
Ex-Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard revealed he liked him as a person but there were problems with Balotelli’s attitude from day one.
“We got on fine. I still tried to help him and I kept looking for chances to praise him but I could see why Mourinho had been right when he said Balotelli is unmanageable.
“He is very talented with the potential to be world class, but he’ll never get there because of his mentality and the people around him. Balotelli’s always late, he always wants attention.
“He made an immediate impression when we were doing work on our defensive set pieces and Balotelli said to Brendan: ‘I don’t mark on corners. I can’t.
“I nearly fell into the goalpost. I was thinking, ‘What are you? 6’3″, and one of the strongest men I’ve ever seen on a football pitch? And you can’t mark on a corner?”
- Liverpool’s terrible signings under Rodgers, including Balotelli
Gerrard couldn’t put Balotelli on the straight and narrow either
Rodgers clearly had his work cut out with this one but the Northern Irishman still speaks so highly of the talent Balotelli possesses but makes no bones that he has wasted the incredible attributes he was blessed with.
“It was pretty clear to see that, strikers I’ve always worked with, Mario Balotelli didn’t fit my style. But one thing I will say about Mario is that he has all the talent, and he genuinely has.
“He should be one of the top three strikers in world football. He has everything. It’s the difference between talent and working talent.”
A loan spell at AC Milan in the 2015/16 season was followed by a permanent transfer to Ligue 1 side Nice in the summer of 2016.
He fired in 17 goals in his first season which is a huge improvement from his days at Anfield before scoring a career-high 18 league goals in 2017/18, which earned him a recall to the Italy national team for the first time since the 2014 World Cup.
But his Nice career came to an abrupt end – Balotelli terminating his contract with the club to sign for Marseille in January 2019.
A month before Balotelli left, then-Nice boss Patrick Vieira made no bones about what he made of the player’s attitude.
Vieira played alongside Balotelli at Inter and Man City as well as coaching him at Nice
“When it comes to Mario, I want to answer back, or just slam him up against the wall or leave him hanging by his collar on the coat rack, but I can’t, as I’m no longer a player,” he said.
Balotelli only played for Marseille for half a season and moved to Brescia last summer. He signed a multi-year contract with his hometown club but things soon turned sour.
Balotelli has been victim of vile racist abuse from opposition fans this season, made worse by Brescia supporters and their club president failing to condemn it.
He then refused to train with his side over claims by Brescia owner Massimo Cellino that it was a ‘mistake’ to sign him.
Balotelli’s once very promising career is tailing off very badly
This isn’t what Balotelli, who had the potential to reach the very top, should be doing during his peak years.
Now he’s a free agent. Unsurprisingly, he had his contract terminated by Brescia in the summer.
There don’t appear to be too many big clubs lining up to take the 30-year-old.
So perhaps Mourinho is mistaken in suggesting Balotelli’s tale is a comedy. Balotelli cuts a tragic figure and time is running out for him to show the world how good he can truly be.
No comments:
Post a Comment