Mario Balotelli – Hero or villain?
All football fans know who this mad but elegant Italian striker is but Mario Balotelli holds the key to whether he turns out to be a hero or villain for club and country.
He joined Inter Milan from Lumezzane, where he made his senior debut at the tender age of 15. In just his second game at Inter and three days after his debut, he scored twice in a 4-1 Coppa Italia victory over Reggina, he also scored in the 2008 Supercoppa Italiana final. In November of that year he became the youngest Inter player to score in the Champions League when he scored against Anorthosis Famagusta, Balotelli continued to be impressive throughout for Inter. When current Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini took over following his dismissal from Inter he brought Balotelli with him in the summer of 2010 for a cool £24 million.
In his first year for City he managed 10 goals in all competitions including a hat-trick against Aston Villa in late December. However his aggression seemed apparent when he picked up 11 yellow cards and 2 reds. In his second and latest season he scored 18 goals in all competitions but again finding his aggression a problem to deal with, picking up another 9 yellow and 2 red cards. He proved his worth to the ‘big boys’ of the league scoring an impressive 2 goals in the rout against bitter rivals Manchester United. Currently Balotelli is in Poland/Ukraine for Euro 2012 and has had a good campaign so far and with no bad headlines to out shine him and with a superb goal against the Republic of Ireland in their last group game. On Sunday he played well against England and was unlucky not to score following some brilliant work to get past the back four and beating the offside trap.
However, headlines about Mario since his arrival in England have not always been so great. He grabbed headlines in Milan whilst at Inter when he was seen wearing an AC Milan shirt, Inter’s rivals, and to wear a shirt of your biggest rivals is unspeakable in any sport. He first grabbed headlines at City when him and former team-mate Jerome Boateng had a training ground bust up. Mario didn’t seem to take any notice of last time and nearly ended up with another bust-up with fellow team-mate Micah Richards, but Mancini intervened and Richards and Mario patched things up. Away from the pitch, Mario has created problems, notably two events, firstly the ‘fireworks incident’ where he reportedly set of fireworks in his own bathroom and set fire to his five-bedroom house. This happened to be the talking point of the nation’s football fans and others worldwide, and Balotelli reacted when he scored in the 6-1 victory over United with the iconic words ‘Why Always Me?’ on his under armour. Secondly he was caught throwing darts at youth team players from a window, thankfully no players were harmed but Mario punished.
Mario is still young and can change his ways, he can look to his international team mate, Italian Antonio Cassano. Cassano has been hailed as Italy’s ‘bad boy’, and some say worse than Super Mario. Cassano in his early years had never escaped headlines in Italy, from screaming at his Real Madrid manager Fabio Capello to boasting about sleeping with ‘600-700’ women. Antonio then suffered a minor heart defect last year and spent five months out of football but he has came back fighting and has became a headline maker for the right reasons.
Balotelli has the skill, passion and finishing to be a great in the beautiful game, but if he doesn’t overcome his anger then he possibly may be a ‘could have been’ player.
By Joe Chuter (@joechuter)
He joined Inter Milan from Lumezzane, where he made his senior debut at the tender age of 15. In just his second game at Inter and three days after his debut, he scored twice in a 4-1 Coppa Italia victory over Reggina, he also scored in the 2008 Supercoppa Italiana final. In November of that year he became the youngest Inter player to score in the Champions League when he scored against Anorthosis Famagusta, Balotelli continued to be impressive throughout for Inter. When current Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini took over following his dismissal from Inter he brought Balotelli with him in the summer of 2010 for a cool £24 million.
In his first year for City he managed 10 goals in all competitions including a hat-trick against Aston Villa in late December. However his aggression seemed apparent when he picked up 11 yellow cards and 2 reds. In his second and latest season he scored 18 goals in all competitions but again finding his aggression a problem to deal with, picking up another 9 yellow and 2 red cards. He proved his worth to the ‘big boys’ of the league scoring an impressive 2 goals in the rout against bitter rivals Manchester United. Currently Balotelli is in Poland/Ukraine for Euro 2012 and has had a good campaign so far and with no bad headlines to out shine him and with a superb goal against the Republic of Ireland in their last group game. On Sunday he played well against England and was unlucky not to score following some brilliant work to get past the back four and beating the offside trap.
However, headlines about Mario since his arrival in England have not always been so great. He grabbed headlines in Milan whilst at Inter when he was seen wearing an AC Milan shirt, Inter’s rivals, and to wear a shirt of your biggest rivals is unspeakable in any sport. He first grabbed headlines at City when him and former team-mate Jerome Boateng had a training ground bust up. Mario didn’t seem to take any notice of last time and nearly ended up with another bust-up with fellow team-mate Micah Richards, but Mancini intervened and Richards and Mario patched things up. Away from the pitch, Mario has created problems, notably two events, firstly the ‘fireworks incident’ where he reportedly set of fireworks in his own bathroom and set fire to his five-bedroom house. This happened to be the talking point of the nation’s football fans and others worldwide, and Balotelli reacted when he scored in the 6-1 victory over United with the iconic words ‘Why Always Me?’ on his under armour. Secondly he was caught throwing darts at youth team players from a window, thankfully no players were harmed but Mario punished.
Mario is still young and can change his ways, he can look to his international team mate, Italian Antonio Cassano. Cassano has been hailed as Italy’s ‘bad boy’, and some say worse than Super Mario. Cassano in his early years had never escaped headlines in Italy, from screaming at his Real Madrid manager Fabio Capello to boasting about sleeping with ‘600-700’ women. Antonio then suffered a minor heart defect last year and spent five months out of football but he has came back fighting and has became a headline maker for the right reasons.
Balotelli has the skill, passion and finishing to be a great in the beautiful game, but if he doesn’t overcome his anger then he possibly may be a ‘could have been’ player.
By Joe Chuter (@joechuter)