Mario Balotelli is undoubtedly an enigma. He has shown flashes of superb ability alongside supreme arrogance, and his off the field antics have certainly tarnished his reputation during his time in England.
It’s hard to understand Balotelli’s attitude towards the game. Sometimes he comes across as a petulant child and others like he just doesn’t care about anything or anyone.
One of the worst instances of this was during the second leg of Manchester City’s Europa league game with Dynamo Kiev where, trailing 2-0 from the first leg, he got sent off for a stupid lunge early on in the game, leaving his team mates a mountain to climb. They won 1-0 but still went out and Balotelli received the criticism he deserved. After scoring a hat trick against Aston Villa Balotelli didn’t even bother to celebrate, his best effort being a small smile after the third, leaving some fans and critics questioning his desire to play for the club.
Even on his full premier league debut against West Brom Balotelli scored 2 goals before getting himself sent off. And at a game at Anfield on cold wet night and trailing 3-0 Balotelli was a first half sub, but had to be substituted off in the second half because of an injury – but it is more likely that he just didn’t fancy it in the poor weather conditions. Despite all the negativity on field he has scored 10 gaols in 23 appearances in all competitions.
After a mixed first season in English football Roberto Mancini has continued to back him to deliver the goods. Towards the end of the season Balotelli’s performances started to pick up, most notably in the FA Cup semi final against Manchester United where in the absence of Carlos Tevez he led the line. Balotelli had a stormer of a game and still found time to goad the Manchester United fans after the final whistle.
Balotelli was also instrumental in the FA Cup final victory over Stoke and many will hope he carries this form into next season. After the victory Balotelli remarked that he had played so well mainly because he had put the team first instead of himself, something he didn’t do at the start of his Manchester City career.
Off the field Balotelli has given the press plenty to write about. He has provided Manchester City Council with some much needed funds by having his car impounded 27 times (mainly for illegal parking and going through red lights) and coughed up over a £10,000 worth in fines. Clearly he doesn’t care and thinks of himself as better than everyone else. He is also renowned for driving around Manchester with £40,000.00 cash on his front seat to show off. When pulled over by the police and asked why exactly he had such a large sum of money with him, Balotelli responded ‘Because I can’. It’s debatable which is bigger, his arrogance or his ego. There is also the now infamous fight he had with a training bib.
However, there have been the some, rather random, incidences of good publicity. When leaving a casino after winning £25,000 he gave £1000 of it to a Big Issue seller who was outside. There is also a rumour that one day when in town Balotelli saw a young boy with his mother and asked him why he wasn’t at school. The boy replied that it was he was getting bullied and was too scared to go to school, so Balotelli took it upon himself to go into the school and give a talk on bullying. True? It’s so out of character it’s hard to believe.
The point has to be made though that last season there were many well publicized boozing sessions involving the Manchester City squad, but Balotelli was rarely, if ever involved. Could this be down to some sort of professionalism on his part and a desire to keep in shape, or simply because his team mates didn’t bother to ask him on nights out?
His sulkiness is supposedly because of homesickness, and he has returned so many times to the family home that his mother has said that even though she is thrilled when he walks through the door she wishes he would live his own life a bit more. Balotelli might feel like a return to Italy would do him some good but its hard to see who would take him. Manchester City no doubt are paying a stupidly high wage which would rule most clubs out.
Looking to the future and his well publicized problems and subsequent fall out with Jose Mourinho may scupper moves to one of the European giants. Mourinho, a renowned one-to-one manager known for getting the best out of his players clearly had problems with Balotelli’s attitude, and not one to waste prospective talent Mourinho still felt that Balotelli wasn’t worth the effort. Roberto Mancini is currently working hard to push Balotelli’s ability to the forefront of his game, but it is unlikely someone like Pep Guardiola or Sir Alex Ferguson would put up with his personality, and that, ultimately, might prevent Balotelli from rising to the very top of world football.
It’s difficult to sum up Balotelli, there are just so many aspects of his personality that contradict each other. A hot prospect with a few attitude problems that will fade over time, or a prima donna who thinks that his career will fall effortlessly into place, no matter how he performs on the pitch?
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It’s goad, not gaud, prima donna (an Italian phrase no less), not pre-madonna(the singer?). All that aside, we at City love Mario and he’s staying right here, job done.
Whatever happened to a bit of humility? His arrogance impacts his on-field performances and has for a long time. There was one memorable tantrum a couple of years ago when Mourinho dragged him off for basically not performing – reminded me of a bratty kid. Enjoy thinking you are the greatest footballer ithe world while you can, Mario. In 15 years it will be “Balotelli who?”