Remembering ‘Super Mario’ Balotelli… he’s not dead or anything, he just makes us smile
ENIGMA. Maverick. Berk.
Just three of the words used to describe the mercurial talent that is Mario Balotelli.
Now playing his football at Nice in France’s Ligue 1, it’s ten years since Balotelli landed on our shores.
With him he brought his undoubted talent and his unique sense of what some might call fun.
Check out just some of the most infamous moments of "Super Mario", below...
Love-hate relationship with Roberto Mancini
Mancini was the coach who gave his first team break at Inter Milan and was the man who took him to Manchester City in the summer of 2010 for £24 million, even though his behaviour frequently drove him nuts.
The pair nearly came to blows at training in January 2013 too.
“I told him, if you played with me 10 years ago I would give you every day maybe one punch in your head,” he says.
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“There are different ways to help a guy like Mario. I don't speak with him every day, otherwise I
would need a psychologist, but I speak with him because I don't want him to lose his quality.
"If Mario is not one of the best players in the world it will be his fault, because he has everything. Mario can be one of the top players in Europe.
"I don't want him to lose his talent.”
It wasn’t long before he was in trouble…
Within days of signing for Man City in 2010, Balotelli was involved in a car crash, writing off his £120,000 Audi R8 when he collided with a BMW.
Though he passed a breathalyser test, police did find £5,000 in cash on Balotelli.
When asked what he was doing with so much money on him, the Italian replied: “Because I’m rich.”
True lies…
Not everything you have read about Mario Balotelli is is true, much as though you would like to to be.
The story about him giving £1,000 to a homeless man? Not true (although he did give smaller amounts).
The one about him going into the University of Manchester and paying off all of the students’ fines for overdue books? Also false.
That time he drove into a women’s prison without a permit in Brescia just to ‘have a look around”?
That one is true.
Like any man, he has his struggles…
Unlike most men, though, he can put a bib on.
He’s a law unto himself…
When he moved into his mansion in Cheshire, Balotelli’s mother Silvio came over to help him and sent him out to buy an iron and ironing board.
Five hours later, Balotelli returned home empty-handed. He was, however, followed by a lorry containing a trampoline, table tennis set, a Scalextric and two Vespa scooters.
As you do.
He’s always been predictably unpredictable…
In a pre-season friendly against LA Galaxy in July 2011, Balotelli opted for a flamboyant and entirely unnecessary pirouette and backheel finish but only succeeded in putting the ball wide.
Enraged yet again, manager Roberto Mancini took him off immediately and replaced him… with James Milner.
That’s got to hurt.
Car trouble…
During his time in Manchester Balotelli’s favourite restaurant was San Carlo in the city centre.
It was here that he’s reported to have picked up £100,000 in parking fines, simply for parking his camouflage Bentley right outside on the double yellow lines.
And, according to City kitman Les Chapman, he even had it impounded 27 times.
When he left the Etihad for AC Milan in 2013, Balotelli even left a bunch of parking tickets in Chapman’s locker as a parting gift. Nice.
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A pain in the grass…
During a Europa League game away to Dynamo Kiev in March 2011, Balotelli is forced to come off having suffered an allergic reaction… to grass.
The striker’s face swells up, his throat hurts and his eyes sting as he’s substituted early in the second half.
Maybe he should have considered a different career path.
He may be beyond salvation…
Though he’s still only 27, Balotelli has already been sent off 13 times in his career.
Even Opta have lost count of the yellow cards.
The trouble, according to his former manager at Inter Milan, Jose Mourinho, is that he just won’t listen to advice. “I remember one time when we went to play Kazan in the Champions League.
"In that match I had all my strikers injured... 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 spent 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!
It’s not just his discipline on the pitch…
From lobbing darts at youth team players to firing air pistols in Milan’s Piazza della Repubblica, trouble seems to follow Balotelli around like a puppy.
Famously, he also set off fireworks inside his Cheshire mansion.
The resultant blaze caused a reported £400,000 worth of damage to the property.
Later, Balotelli was unveiled as the ambassador for firework safety for Greater Manchester, role model that he clearly is.
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‘Why Always Me?’
The very next day after the fire, Balotelli scored the opening goal in City’s 6-1 battering of neighbours United and lifted up his shirt to reveal another shirt with the words ‘WHY ALWAYS ME?’
Why? Because you let off fireworks in your bathroom.
That said, it was a rare goal celebration for Balotelli who usually shuns such things.
“When I score, I don’t celebrate because I’m only doing my job,” he says.
“When a postman delivers letters, does he celebrate?”