It says a lot when a BBC reporter begins by calling Roberto Mancini “Mario” and has to be corrected by the Manchester City manager.
But Mario Balotelli in his short time playing in England has already produced so many headlines on and off the time he is leaving all of his City team mates and even his manager in the shadows. Unfortunately some of these are for the wrong reasons – looking like a fool in failing to be able to do the simplest of things such as put on a training bib, be the ultimate in arrogant with the attempted back-heel in the pre-season friendly in the United States that resulted in Balotelli being substituted immediately are just two examples.
We have also seen the cheeky side of his arrogance too like the recent shoulder goal and of course the T-shirts we have seen him wearing under his team shirt.
I am sure that there are many people that loathe this guy and I know that there are plenty of others that love him. For me – in his first season at City I did not see it; I just saw an arrogant shall we say Cantona-esq type player with none of the great qualities of the Frenchmen. But Mario has forced me to change my opinion of him this season as the stories off the field about him (whether they are true or not) have been fun, his performances have been good so much so that his arrogance on the field is now coming across with a much nicer undertone.
Apparently Balotelli does not give interviews claiming that he is shy. The BBC finally got their man after several failed attempts when Mario agreed only if he was interviewed by ex-Oasis and now High Flying Birds frontman Noel Gallagher. In all of his time on the pitch in this country I have never seen Mario smile so much and this helps to shake off his moody persona. I am not sure if I completely believe everything that he says in this interview when he denies just about every media story that has printed about him – could the press get it wrong so often and just make it up all of the time? Yes, we know they make it up some of the time but I just detected in some of Mario's responses that there was quite a bit more to some of these stories than what he was letting on.
Here is a link to what the BBC website claims is the full interview – but I also found a part elsewhere where he talks about Carlos Tevez and when this clip aired on TV on Saturday afternoon there was some of other parts that had been cut out for whatever reason. Here is a clip that I put together of part of the interview in which Gallagher directly asks Balotelli to confirm that the many stories printed about him are true – Gallagher almost seems disappointed when Mario denies them and in some ways I don't blame him because they all add to his character. For now I am still with the "Super Mario" but we shall what happens as I am sure that there is still plenty more to come from this very interesting footballer.
But Mario Balotelli in his short time playing in England has already produced so many headlines on and off the time he is leaving all of his City team mates and even his manager in the shadows. Unfortunately some of these are for the wrong reasons – looking like a fool in failing to be able to do the simplest of things such as put on a training bib, be the ultimate in arrogant with the attempted back-heel in the pre-season friendly in the United States that resulted in Balotelli being substituted immediately are just two examples.
We have also seen the cheeky side of his arrogance too like the recent shoulder goal and of course the T-shirts we have seen him wearing under his team shirt.
I am sure that there are many people that loathe this guy and I know that there are plenty of others that love him. For me – in his first season at City I did not see it; I just saw an arrogant shall we say Cantona-esq type player with none of the great qualities of the Frenchmen. But Mario has forced me to change my opinion of him this season as the stories off the field about him (whether they are true or not) have been fun, his performances have been good so much so that his arrogance on the field is now coming across with a much nicer undertone.
Apparently Balotelli does not give interviews claiming that he is shy. The BBC finally got their man after several failed attempts when Mario agreed only if he was interviewed by ex-Oasis and now High Flying Birds frontman Noel Gallagher. In all of his time on the pitch in this country I have never seen Mario smile so much and this helps to shake off his moody persona. I am not sure if I completely believe everything that he says in this interview when he denies just about every media story that has printed about him – could the press get it wrong so often and just make it up all of the time? Yes, we know they make it up some of the time but I just detected in some of Mario's responses that there was quite a bit more to some of these stories than what he was letting on.
Here is a link to what the BBC website claims is the full interview – but I also found a part elsewhere where he talks about Carlos Tevez and when this clip aired on TV on Saturday afternoon there was some of other parts that had been cut out for whatever reason. Here is a clip that I put together of part of the interview in which Gallagher directly asks Balotelli to confirm that the many stories printed about him are true – Gallagher almost seems disappointed when Mario denies them and in some ways I don't blame him because they all add to his character. For now I am still with the "Super Mario" but we shall what happens as I am sure that there is still plenty more to come from this very interesting footballer.
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