60 THE PREM ERA
August 2007, before he had made his
Serie A debut, he rejected an approach
by Ghana saying that he wanted to play
for theAzzurri.
He had to wait another three years
for the first call-up which finally came this
August when Italy coach Cesare Prandelli
signalled the dawn of a new era by naming
him in his first squad, for a friendly against
the Ivory Coast in London. The point here,
of course, is that following Italy’s terribly
disappointing World Cup in South Africa,
one of the accusations most frequently
levelled against previous coach Marcello
Lippi was that he had left out of hissquad the two most talented Italians
of the moment: namely, Balotelli and
his fellow forward Antonio Cassano.
Among those to attend the West
Bromwich Albion-Manchester City game
was Prandelli himself. Word was that he
had “pardoned” Balotelli for his red card
and intended to name him for Italy’s
November friendly with Romania.
Prandelli knows only too well that,
during a difficult moment like this, Italy’s
footballing future lies at the feet of
a player like Mario Balotelli.
Paddy AgnewMARIO BALOTELLI
Italy & Manchester CityThose Internazionale supporters who did
not see Mario Balotelli score his first two
Premier League goals in Manchester City’s
2-0 away win at West Bromwich Albion
probably smiled wryly to themselves when
they read the match report. As so often in
the past, Balotelli was both villain and hero
of the hour since not only did he win the
game for City but he also managed to
get himself sent off.
Like it or not, where there is 20-year-old
Balotelli, there is often controversy. Some
of the polemics are of his own doing,
linked to an apparently unorthodox, if not
to say indisciplined, attitude. Undoubtedly,
though, some of the polemics have a much
more serious basis, namely the latent
racism of a vocal minority of Italian fans.
The “discipline” problems are well
known. Throughout his two years at Inter,
Jose Mourinho regularly found fault with
his attitude, accusing him of not pulling
his weight in training. Inter supporters
recall with no small amusement how the
police recorded him doing over 60mph on
the small country road that leads to Inter’s
La Pinetina training ground in the foothills
of the Alps.
If it is true that Balotelli has not alwayshelped himself with his headstrong attitude,
it is also true that he has encountered
problems not of his own creation. Born
in Palermo to a Ghanaian couple, he was
abandoned as a baby in a hospital in the
Brescia area. Having spent most of his first
two years in an institution, he was formally
adopted by the Balotelli family from Concesio
in the province of Brescia in1993 and
brought up along with two brothers
and one sister.
As a black player, however, he has
repeatedly been the object of racist abuse
from opposing supporters. In particular,
he became a “bete noire”forJuventusfans after scoring twice againstJuve as a
17-year-old in an Italian Cup quarter-final
inJanuary 2008.
So strident were the racist chants aimed
at Balotelli during a game in April 2009
thatJuventus ended up with a sanction
ordering them to play a subsequent Serie A
game against Atalanta behind closed doors.
At the time, Balotelli showed a deal of
common sense, dismissing the chants and
commenting afterwards: “I’m more Italian
than those idiots.”
It is also true, however, that Balotelli has
not always gone out of his way to endear
himself to opposing fans. For example,
during Inter’s 3-3 home draw with Roma,
in March 2009, he appeared to make a
provocative gesture to the Roma fans,
inviting them to be silent after he had
scored a much-contested penalty.
The anti-Balotelli feeling reached
ridiculous proportions one weekend in
November last year when he managed
to “attract” ugly chants at two different
matches being played hundreds of miles
apart. At both Inter’s away game in Bologna
and, even more perversely, duringJuve’s
home game with Udinese, he was once
more the object of sporting, if not racist
abuse: “Se saltelli, muore Balotelli”(ifyou
jump up and down, then Balotelli dies).
Even whenJuventus travelled to face
Bordeaux in a Champions League group
game last autumn, the anti-Balotelli
chant went with them. On that particular
occasion, it required the intervention ofJuve
goalkeeper Gigi Buffon to convince the fans
to adopt other more acceptable chants. So
when Balotelli declares that he feel himself
“more Italian” than idiotic racist fans he is
not merely mouthing empty words. InLike it or not, where there is 20-year-old
Balotelli,there is often controversy