It’s hard to remember a time when Mario Balotelli didn’t cause controversy. He has always had fans, but it seems even more ill-wishers. For example, he is not favored in Los Angeles, where he once tried to score with a roulette and heel, obviously bored during a friendly match. The offended audience hooted, and the player was removed from the game by Roberto Mancini, who considered the striker’s trick too impudent. When Turkish coach Sergen Yalcin recalled this moment, he spoke of the Italian as a football player “without brains.”
It just so happened that Mario is now playing for the Turkish club Adana Demirspor. He’s 31, but has he learned anything? The recent match against Besiktas makes it clear that old Mario is still the same. Don’t you wanna bet on his games? 22Bet mobile betting app in Tanzania offers you such an opportunity.
Recall that then the Italian, playing against the team of a longtime offender, decided to shoot far from outside the penalty area, so perfect, so beautiful, so crazy that no analyst in the world would have predicted a goal. But that’s Mario, and no one else knows how to ship goals of world, even historical level with such apparent ease.
Of course, running past Yalcin, Super Mario stopped, pointed to his head and dropped: “Without a brain? Or maybe a genius after all? As a result, his celebration was shown longer than the goal itself.
Many of us have forgotten about the controversial striker, but one person has never lost sight of him. Roberto Mancini always followed the successes and failures of the former ward. When in 2018 he began to coach the Italian national team, he immediately interrupted Balotelli’s period of exile and called him to the team.
Nothing surprising for those who know this coach and his favorites. True, the skeptics had nothing to cover – then Balotelli could boast of 26 goals in 38 matches in Nice. Alas, he soon forgot about football, and the big transition to the club fell through harder. When Patrick Vieira, a former friend of Mario, became the head coach of Nice, he could not find a use for the striker.
“He has amazing technique,” says coach Vincenzo Montella. “Working with him is a pleasure. He is a good guy. Sometimes he gets distracted, but overall he seems like a motivated footballer to me. Never before has he been so focused on his career. Mario intends to do everything to return to the national team.” The striker himself echoes his words, saying that he wants to join the national team so much that he is ready to make the journey from Adana to Coverciano on his own if Mancini calls.
As you might guess, opinions are divided at home, but few are ready to openly criticize the judgment of a coach who just won Euro 2020. He’s experimenting, but he has a right to be.
