Mario Balotelli, close fight with Roberto Mancini

Mario Balotelli’s past

In England, they have not forgotten Mario Balotelli.

Les Chapman, a former Manchester City warehouseman, revealed to podcas Ninety Three Twenty a couple of backstories from his years (2010-2013) at Manchester City. “Once we were playing against Dinamo Kiev and Balotelli was sent off after twenty seconds. He returned to the locker room and sat in front of his locker remaining silent. Shortly afterwards Mancini arrived and started cursing at him in Italian, waving his arms and being almost possessed. He was about to return to the field to follow the game when he stumbled upon Costel Pantilimon’s (former City player) bag. He picked it up, turned around, and threw it toward Balotelli, who ducked his head, letting the object bounce off the locker. Mancini ran at him again, yelling again in Italian and I think ‘Mario, hit him.’ I got in the way to prevent a fight from starting but at that moment Mancini turned around and went back to follow the game. Mario had fantastic skills but he will never be a player for the team, in fact I think the assist to Aguero was the only one….”

Closing remark on the ‘Why always me?’ shirt: “On the eve of the game Mario told me he wanted to make a shirt for the derby, I told him, ‘okay but nothing offensive towards United fans or anything like that.’ He made me a couple of proposals, which I rejected and then he said, ‘and why always me (why always me, ed.)’. At that moment I knew that was the right phrase. The problem was that instead of simply raising his uniform to show his jersey to everyone, he raised it over his head and received a warning. At that point Mancini told us, ‘that’s enough, don’t print that shirt anymore.”