Balotelli Appreciation Thread

[MEIRELES.]

Mario Balotelli gives Britain a new buffoon

The Premier League footballer's antics make those of Wayne Rooney and the rest seem parochial by comparison

Mario Balotelli, seemingly imbued with superhuman self-belief. Photograph: Claudio Villa/Getty Images Europe

Can this be right? That the week's most heartwarming piece of showbiz news comes from the terrifying grotesquery of perversion and horridness that is the Premier League's footballing community? Yes, it can. The Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli swaggered out of a casino last week and casually handed £1,000 to a homeless person. Where's the twist? Did he then demand sex from him? Or make him entertain his entourage by dancing like one of those miserable, enslaved Russian bears from the adverts? No. He just gave him the money and went off home. And suddenly, in some minuscule way, the footballing world's karmic scales were momentarily rebalanced.

From a PR point of view, it has been a particularly bad year for footballers, what with Ashley Cole accidentally shooting someone and Nani building a statue of himself and everything. Someone needed to act to show they weren't all bastards all of the time. It was fitting that Balotelli was that man. Since he arrived in the UK from his homeland of Italy in September last year, he has fast become a new figurehead for footballing buffoons. He is a real idiot's idiot: a man-child who makes the antics of Wayne Rooney and the rest seem so parochial and narrow-minded by comparison. Swearing on telly? Shagging your best mate's girlfriend? Pah! Crude, childish horseplay to Balotelli.

This season he has been sent off, caught fighting, professed to have an allergy to football pitches and already been fined repeatedly for misbehaviour. After all this we might have expected him to push the boundaries of unpleasantness further by, say, killing a dog, filling it with massive, ethically unsound diamonds and wearing it as a hat while he moonwalked on to the field of play, laughing hysterically and licking blood from his hands. But, you see, that is just the sort of thing his public would have expected from him. And Balotelli is anything but predictable.

Giving a wad of cash to a homeless person is exactly the sort of counter- intuitive behaviour he specialises in. No one expected him to trespass in a women's prison with his brother for a bit of a laugh. But last October, while recuperating from an operation back in Italy, that's exactly what he did. No one expected him to chuck darts at youth team players out of a window at Manchester City's training ground last month either, but he did that too. He blamed both incidents on boredom. See what I mean? He is an imaginative idiot. His brain is curious and enquiring, always seeking out new ways of being massively stupid. And that's what separates him from his dreary idiot-contemporaries, who are happy to play it safe with their predictable acts of street-brawling and incessant adultery.

According to the Sun's source, this was not the first time he had committed an act of charity. "Mario is really generous," they said. "He always hands £20 notes to the Big Issue boys without even taking the magazine." Hear that? Without even taking the magazine. Sounds like the sort of thing Jesus would do, right? Well, the Big Issue people would probably lecture him about the importance of giving homeless people a hand-up rather than a handout. But Mario wouldn't listen. As far as he is concerned there are only two ways of doing things: the Mario Balotelli way and the wrong way. It would be useless to point out the fine line between sincere acts of charity and self- aggrandising acts of vulgarity.

Like so many of his contemporaries, he is seemingly imbued with superhuman self-belief and a cast-iron sense of entitlement. He isn't guaranteed a starting place in the Manchester City team and is yet to establish himself as an international player, but this is what he has to say about his professional status: "There is only one player who is a little stronger than me: Messi."

He is just as comfortable with his wealth. When he wrote off his sports car in Manchester shortly after arriving in the city last year, attendant police officers searched him and discovered £5,000 in cash hanging out of his back pocket. Asked why he was carrying such a sum, Balotelli shrugged and said: "Because I am rich." Nobody can control him. His exasperated manager Roberto Mancini has commented: "Every day I fight against Mario and sometimes I would like to give him a punch." Mario's response? "He couldn't. I do Thai kick-boxing."

There are tiny hints of vulnerability behind the bravado. He has complained of being homesick for Italy. Last month, millions watched a heart-rending YouTube clip of him struggling to pull on a training bib during a pre-match warm up before losing his temper and instructing a member of the coaching staff to do it for him. It was almost poetic; a poignant encapsulation of this young man's inability to navigate himself through the daily challenges presented by a cruel universe without seeking refuge in rage and indignation.

Liam Gallagher recently said of him: "Mario's smart, I like the way he's a bit of a headcase." And so the torch was passed from the previous incumbent to the next: Britain has its new Idiot Laureate.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz/2011/apr/21/mario-balotelli-britain-new-buffoon

some bitter article.

LMFAO

f*ck*ng sick article.

[Guest FA23]

OOOOOOO Balotelli, he's a striker, he's good at darts, an allergy to grass but when he plays he's f*ck*ng class, he drives around moss side with a wallet full of cash!!

[Guest Portuguese]

in this month's 442 magazine the main feature is about the best young players aged 20 and under

Interview with Wilshere,Neymar,Eriksen,Lamela is good

But the last few pages of this review is on this guy its worth a read.

When he was at school you had the other parents starting a pention to get Balotelli expelled and all sorts

Balotelli also says something like if he sees a white guy or a black guy he doesn't know for the first time he will say hello to the black guy but he would air the white guy

Jajajaajajjajajajajajajajajajajaja

[Guest Portuguese]

Balotelli: if I was walking in the streets and I see a person I did not know I would insitinctively say hello if he was black man but not to a white man

[Guest M12 Part 2]

Balotelli: if I was walking in the streets and I see a person I did not know I would insitinctively say hello if he was black man but not to a white man

This guy my love for him can't stop increasing.

[Guest Portuguese]

Newspaper today

Seriously this guy>>>

After seven months of tantrums, training ground bust-ups, red cards, countless parking tickets and a car crash, Roberto Mancini's patience with Mario Balotelli was finally exhausted.

His £23 million striker had been sent off - again - against Dynamo Kiev and this time it had cost Manchester City a lucrative place in a European quarter-final.



Winning team: Balotelli (left) knows where he stands with Roberto Mancini (right)

Mancini walked into the Eastlands dressing room, confronted his fellow Italian and gave him the mother of all dressing downs for the chesthigh challenge on Goran Popov that had earned him his dismissal and helped to end City's interest in this season's Europa League.

Even now, seven weeks later, Ballotelli winces at the memory.

'He called me an idiot,' he said. 'He shouted that he wished he'd never signed me.'

Oddly enough, though, the bust-up between manager and player appears to have marked a watershed in Ballotelli's City career.

And that, he says, is down to Mancini's leadership skills.

The contrast with his former boss, Jose Mourinho, could not, adds Ballotelli, be more marked.

'Mancini was angry, but I prefer someone to be direct,' he said. 'I hate people who say to my face "Mario, you are good" and then tell other people behind my back "Mario is s***".





Enigma: Balotelli's antics are enough to make any manager scream, as Mancini (left) and Mourinho (right) know

'Roberto says what he has to say - he never lies and that is what I like about him.'

Last year at Inter Milan, Mourinho labelled Balotelli 'unmanageable' and dropped him from the squad for the Champions League final.

On Saturday, however, Ballotelli will doubtless get his chance to perform on another big stage, the FA Cup final at Wembley against Stoke City.

'Mancini is doing what Mourinho couldn't do,' said Balotelli. 'Mourinho couldn't understand me. They are both great managers, but they are different men. Mancini supports me, Mourinho was different.

'Whenever I had a problem, Mourinho always went against me. Maybe it is because we have the same character. Mancini savaged me after the Kiev game, but that was in private. In public, he has always supported me.'

Mourinho has been linked with replacing Mancini at City, as he once did at Inter.

It is little surprise that the prospect does not appeal to Balotelli.



Hot shot: Balotelli has a rifle of a right foot

'I don't know why somebody would want another coach at City. The club has never been in the Champions League and if we win the FA Cup, it will be the first trophy for 35 years,' he said.

'Roberto is doing well, so why should he be changed? I came to Manchester because I trusted him.'

Nobody who followed Balotelli's career in Italy will have been surprised by his ability to attract controversy like a moth to the light.

Inter fans were incensed when he was photographed in the shirt of rivals AC Milan.

City were unimpressed by him throwing darts out of a window at the training ground and fined him for his dismissal against Kiev.

Ballotelli is bright and has a quick wit in Italian or English. But he also appears to lack common sense.

Sometimes that has a humorous effect, as witnessed in the online footage of him trying - and failing - to put on a training bib.

On other occasions his naivety lands him in trouble.



Seeing red: Balotelli sent off by referee Lee Probert against West Brom

Only Balotelli could manage to get himself sent off - and subsequently banned for three games - just minutes after scoring his first Premier League goals, against West Brom.

More seriously, he allowed his celebrations after beating Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley to overshadow his performance, when he led the line in Carlos Tevez's absence in exemplary fashion.

Celebrating in front of the United fans might not have been malicious, but it angered Rio Ferdinand and other United players enough for a heated exchange to take place and earn Balotelli more unwanted headlines.

Balotelli's saving grace is that he does not try to justify his misdemeanours with public relations hogwash.

He may feel harshly judged at times, but he does not deny making mistakes - including parking on too many double yellow lines.

'People don't always do the right thing, do they? I am 20 years old and sometimes I do the wrong thing,' he said.

'Wearing that AC Milan shirt was wrong. I regret it and City fans don't have to worry, I will never be photographed in a United shirt. Since I came to England, I have had a lot of parking fines, about 20, and I have been stupid, I have parked my car outside my favourite restaurant too often. But then I read that I have to pay £12,000 in parking fines. That's not possible - I would have to get 35 parking tickets every day!'

He says that he understands why Ferdinand got upset about his behaviour at Wembley, although Balotelli insists that there was no malice intended.



Getting shirty: Mario Balotelli goads the Manchester United fans in the semi-final at Wembley

'I celebrated by showing my shirt [to the United fans] but I didn't say anything. I didn't swear,' he said.

'It is normal to be upset, like United were, when you lose a game and if another player celebrates in front of your supporters, you'd be angry.

'But I didn't mean to disrespect anybody. I think the United players were too sensitive but I am sensitive as well. If that happened to me, maybe I would have reacted in the same way [as Ferdinand].'

On the pitch, Balotelli's performances have veered between world-class and hopeless - and he is just as much a contradiction away from football.

He describes himself as 'shy', then in the next breath admits to his fondness for 'having fun'.

He rails against the image portrayed of him in the media - 'I am a normal 20-year-old,' he says - but he seems secretly to enjoy the 'wild child' image, too.

Among his favourite pursuits back home in Italy were shooting with his friends, martial arts and go-karting.

Not for him the traditional English footballer's pastime of golf.



Shirt shrift: United fans were unhappy with Wembley antics

'I haven't tried it but I don't think I'd like it. Too quiet,' he said.

More seriously, he wants to move friends and family over to live with him permanently in Manchester next season, the surest sign yet that he is ready to pledge his long-term future to City after feeling homesick and lonely during his first few months in England.

'It has been difficult living in a new country, particularly at the beginning,' he admitted.

'After training, I stay at home and go on the PlayStation or sometimes I have to find some interests because in Italy I had lots and lots of friends.

'Next year, I think my friends will come over and it will be easier. My mum came over for one week, but next year I think my family will move here, my mum and my sisters and brothers also.

'Some of the things that are written about me make me laugh because they are not true. I am a regular 20-year-old. I like to go to places like Dukes (a Manchester bar) when I'm out, just like every other young guy in the city. That is normal for someone my age, but maybe not normal for a footballer.'





Role models: 'Dad' Patrick Vieira (left) and hero Didier Drogba (right) are big influences for Balotelli

At City, his team-mate Patrick Vieira - 'My dad,' jokes Balotelli - is a calming influence and the visit both of them made this week to St Ann's Hospice, in Cheadle, Cheshire, may help to impress on a young man who is paid £120,000 a week to play football just what a privileged life he leads.

Tall, strong and athletic, with a good shot and blistering pace, Balotelli has all the attributes to follow in the footsteps of his favourite Premier League player, Chelsea's Didier Drogba.

'When I play at my normal level, I think I can be one of the best players in the game,' he said.

First off, however, there is an FA Cup final to win.

It would be typical Balotelli if he ended up becoming the centre of attention again at Wembley, but he is adamant that he will happily sacrifice himself for the team, as long as City fans end up with their long-overdue silverware.

'I am not selfish, I just want to see my team win,' he said. 'If you want to win something, some trophies for yourself, you have to make your team win because you cannot win on your own.

'The best thing about English football is the supporters, and our supporters are great. I like them and I want to win the Cup for them. I want to win it, and to win it I must be positive. But I don't have to be the hero.

[menace-II-society]

Actually crying with laughter after reading some of that

[Guest Awesome Kong]

LOL @ the last few pages.

I've changed my mind, Balotelli >>>>>>>> ____________

[Hernandez Balcazar]

MARIO BALOTELLI should get a Heart of Gold from ESTHER RANTZEN.

The Manchester City star helped a young autograph hunter being picked on at school - by confronting the bully himself.

The striker questioned why the young lad was playing truant with his mum outside the club's Carrington training ground rather than attending school.

After the fan revealed that he was being bullied, Mario drove the youngster and his mum over to the school in question and demanded a meeting with the headteacher.

The Blues ace got the youngster to confess what had been happening and made him identify the culprit. The lads eventually shook hands before Mario got into his white Maserati and sped off.

A source said: "Mario feels strongly about bullying and thinks it's out of order.

"He had no qualms about sorting the mess out as he felt the lad should not be missing out on school."

[Creed Diskenth]

f*ck offf

Mario >>>

[mp*]

Real guy.

[Captain Planet]

What a guy

[Flojo]

Mario >>>

This should be the topic title tbh

[Heero Yuy]

Mario >>>

This should be the topic title tbh

:!:

[Taurus]

LMAO

Real life hero

f*ck about

[JOHN DOE]

obv this is a bait pr move tho come on lads

[Guest FA23]

f*ck offf

Mario >>>

[Guest Portuguese]

C/S all the comments above apart from one

[Guest haze-e]

Lol.

Sick guy.

[Michel Kane]

I'm not gonna lie, I'm reading these stories thinking they're so outlandish right now.

If true, Mario truly >>> _____________________________________________

[Badman]

Super M >

[nemesis]

MARIO BALOTELLI should get a Heart of Gold from ESTHER RANTZEN.

The Manchester City star helped a young autograph hunter being picked on at school - by confronting the bully himself.

The striker questioned why the young lad was playing truant with his mum outside the club's Carrington training ground rather than attending school.

After the fan revealed that he was being bullied, Mario drove the youngster and his mum over to the school in question and demanded a meeting with the headteacher.

The Blues ace got the youngster to confess what had been happening and made him identify the culprit. The lads eventually shook hands before Mario got into his white Maserati and sped off.

A source said: "Mario feels strongly about bullying and thinks it's out of order.

"He had no qualms about sorting the mess out as he felt the lad should not be missing out on school."

top guy

[Guest Fat Eric]

obv this is a bait pr move tho come on lads

trust me fam

[Thun]

f*ck offf

Mario >>>

[Thun]

obv this is a bait pr move tho come on lads

Them conspiracy theories there