Roberto Mancini unveiled his first squad as the new coach of the Italian national side and the biggest indication that this was a new era was the inclusion of Mario Balotelli.
While other teams are preparing for the World Cup, the inclusion of Balotelli signals a major sea change in squad selection, bringing back into the fold a gifted, oft-maligned striker.
Mario Balotelli made his triumphant return to the Italian national team against Saudi Arabia on Monday and managed to score an outstanding goal early on.
In true Balotelli form, it only took him just a measly twenty minutes to find the back of the net. They really could have done with him against Sweden.
The match was the first of former Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini’s tenure as the coach of the Italian team, and the Azzurri went on to win 2-1.
The Stanley Cup playoffs took a blow on Sunday when Brad Marchand and the Boston Bruins were knocked out in the second round. The NHL, hockey fans will note, reprimanded Marchand after he twice licked opponents during the postseason. But it got us thinking, who in the soccer world is most likely to be asked to stop licking players?
Mario Balotelli scored his 16th Ligue 1 goal of the season on Sunday in Nice’s 2-1 defeat to Marseille, but the 27-year-old Italian’s personal renaissance at the club may be at an end.
Mario Balotelli is either the greatest brother or the worst brother of all time. The Nice striker claims he defeated his brother, Enock Barwuah, a forward for Ciliverghe Mazzano in Italy, in FIFA and Enock will not admit his defeat. So Mario being Mario called in a few friends to make his point.
Neymar, Falcao, Kevin-Prince Boateng and even AC Milan CEO Adriano Galliani, among others, joined in with Mario Balotelli trolling to call Enock a liar and a sore loser.
Nice president Jean-Pierre Rivere has responded to rumors linking striker Mario Balotelli with a return to Serie A (Milan and Inter being the destinations bandied about) by saying, “Mario leaving? No, that’s impossible. You know his importance. It’s unimaginable.”
Mario Balotelli was not called up for Italy's World Cup qualifiers this international break, so the Nice forward had some time on his hands. He used that time to race motorcycles.
We think this is a very good use of his time. Motorcycles are fun! Mario Balotelli is also fun, so this is a perfect combination. We would like to see this sort of thing more often, honestly.
We are also very proud of Balotelli for evidently winning the race.