da betano casino： For a twenty-year old who has been in the Premier League for just one full season, it is fair to say that Mario Balotelli has made more of an impression than most.
da esoccer bet： The media and footballing fans seem to lap up stories of the Italian youngster which paint him in a less than positive light to say the least. In the space of a year, we are led to believe that the boy has racked up an astronomical amount in parking fines, goes to visit the Italian Mafia as often as Colleen Rooney visits Barbados, throws darts and other implements out of windows and carries around tens of thousands of pounds in his car ‘just because he can.’
Yet is this actually the case? The player himself disputes this, admitting that whilst he has done some less than advisable things in his short career, he is far from the ‘unmanagble player’ Mourinho dubbed him as, and has a great deal to give should the chance arise. Balotelli sees himself in the brand of a Didier Drogba and both admires the Ivorian and sees himself in the players’ mould of striker. Balotelli’s team mates have often been quoted as saying they believe more is made of the striker’s personal life and off field pursuits than should be, and that he is hugely talented too.
Micah Richards stated that “He’s got all the talent in the world and, for me, he’s probably the best of his age group that there is.” It does not seem impossible that Balotelli could step up and replace Carlos Tevez should the Argentinian leave City, with performances in the FA Cup final and flashes of his brilliance displayed throughout a debut season that produced ten goals pointing to this.
When jumping on the bandwagon and criticising the player, many people would point to City’s recent game against LA Galaxy where Balotelli was subbed after half an hour, by Mancini who was sporting a face in a shade of purple Alex Ferguson would be proud of, after attempting a somewhat audacious back heel attempt at a goal. But let’s put this into perspective. Saying the young lad was ‘disrespectful’ is ludicrous, with it being no worse than the attempt Arsenal made at scoring a penalty where Pires and Henry tried to pass the ball between them. That was a Premier League game – not pre-season when they were already a goal to the good.
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Moreover, should that goal have come off, not only would the crowd at the Home Depot Stadium have been entertained in a somewhat dull game, Balotelli would have been lauded as creative and in line for goal of the season awards before it has even fully begun.
The only person who should be ashamed in the incident we shall now dub ‘subgate’ was Mancini, who let his emotions control his usually icy cold persona, and by replacing Balotelli with James Milner made City look more ordinary than they already did, with only Dzeko to rely on up front. The game, unsurprisingly, went to penalties, with Joe Hart enhancing his already stellar reputation by both saving and scoring the winning penalty.
For Mancini to sub the striker, it created a huge furore, and made the incident much larger than it should have been. Clearly Balotelli’s reaction should not be condoned or encouraged, but it is natural for the player to be disappointed and probably confused as to the reaction to his attempt to liven up the crowd and score a wonder goal.
Roberto Mancini was being more than slightly hypocritical when accusing Balotelli of being unprofessional. It was hardly the Champions League final and City were a goal to the good – scored by Balotelli himself. By taking the lad off the only thing Mancini managed to do was cause a huge scene and make City look like they were lacking in creativeness and a striker who could actually score. Isolating yet another player is less than advisable for the manager, with Adebayor and Bellamy already languishing in the reserves – is Balotelli now to join them?
If Mancini is not careful he will have more players in the reserves than in the first team. If Tevez does leave and Aguero is not signed or fails to acclimatize to the move, Balotelli will become an even more important player for the team -something he cannot do from the Siberia of the reserves Mancini is seemingly creating.
Should Balotelli live up to his prodigious skill and manage to tone down certain aspects of his personality, which seems as much to do with surrounding himself with the right people around him and PR team as anything, the boy has truly frightening skill, with aerial ability, strength, speed, agility and most of all an eye for goal. At times leadership skills are also displayed from the young boy, and it is not impossible to envisage Mario as a captain of the future, and one who terrorises defences too.
Read more of Rebecca Knight’s articles at This is Futbol
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