Well he's the name on everyones lips at the moment, he's a classic example of a "Marmite Player" you either love him or hate him, well at the moment for Balotelli there's a lot more hate than love at the moment. What has happened to the player who shone at the San Siro? I mean this kid was capable of some serious moments of genius, he looked like the future of Italian football...
In total he made 59 league appearances for Inter, scoring 20 goals and providing 10 for his team mates, for someone who made his debut at 18 this is a very impressive record. He reminds me of Andrei Shevchenko in his younger days at Dynamo Kyiv and more famously at AC Milan. Just like "Sheva" Balotelli has become a figure of ire due to his strange behaviour on and off the pitch, and even stranger dress sense...
Yes, before you ask that is a hat...
What Balotelli hasn't had is the chance to prove himself in the Premier League. So far he has had an inconsistent run in the first team due to injuries and suspension after his red card against West Brom. With any other foreign import in the Premier League they are given time to settle but Balotelli due to the medias dislike of him doesn't have this.
At the moment he hasn't shown his best side yet but neither have many Italian players from Serie A who've moved to England. These include Rolando Bianci, Alberto Aquilani, Massimo Taibi and Andrea Dossena but I think Balloteli is far more talented than these names. The thing with him is that he has the pace and power which is common in many African strikers e.g. Obafemi Martins, Aruna Dindane and Asamoah Gyan. What Balotelli also has is the technique, technique that he has learnt in the Italian youth system. Left foot, right foot, 6 yard box and outside the area it all seems the same for "Super Mario".
Yes he's moody and unpredictable and I don't want to sound psychologically analytical here but wouldn't you be? He has been racially abused since he started playing for the Inter first team and probably before. He clearly declares himself as Italian and has turned down the opportunity to play for Ghana the country of his biological parents birth and accepted an Italian name. But still a large group of Italian fans refuse to accept him, he has been through a match against Juventus, at the age of 18, with the crowd chanting about him dying and made his full debut for Italy with Italian fans abusing him. How many 19 year olds do you know would be able to cope with that?
He doesn't help himself with the comments he's made about fellow professional Jack Wilshire, he was quoted as saying “What's his name? Wil...? No, I just don't know him, but the next time I play against Arsenal I'll try to be careful. Maybe I could show him the Golden Boy trophy and remind him that I won.” I think if anything this arrogant streak could lead to his demise.
Mario Balotelli, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly...
After winning the Golden Boy Award he also went to comment on previous winners of the trophy saying, "There's only one that is a little stronger than me: Messi. All the others are behind me," The past winners of the award include Cesc Fabregas and Wayne Rooney. But how true is this? Lets have a look at Balotelli compared to the best players in the world...
Didier Drogba at 20
Le Mans - 32 games, 7 goals
Didier Drogba first season in the prem
41 games, 16 goals
Carlos Tevez at 20
Corinthians - 38 games, 25 goals
Carlos Tevez first season in the prem
29 games, 7 goals
Edin Dzeko at 20
Teplice - 30 games, 13 goals
Edin Dzeko first season in the Germany
33 games, 9 goals
Wayne Rooney at 20
United - 48 games, 19 goals
Lionel Messi at 20
Barca - 40 games, 16 goals
David Villa at 20
Sporting Gijon B - 35 games, 13 goals
Samuel Eto'o at 20
Mallorca - 40 games, 10 goals
Raul at 20
Real Madrid - 49 games, 15 goals
Mario Ballotelli so far at 20
City - 9 games, 5 goals
The stats do show that Balotelli does match up to some of the big names in football when he was their ages and to be honest I don't think Wilshire is even near his level in football if its based on talent and achievement. Remember Balotelli was part of a team which won the Champions League, Serie A and the Coppa Italia scoring some important goals on the way. Now after all the talking, the statistics and the criticism, lets see if you can get your mind right Mario and be super again...
People always say you have to have a screw loose somewhere if you want to be a goalkeeper. Well I'm going to have a look at some of the players who are slightly outside of the box called sanity. Every club has one, but I'm talking about those who've gained international recognition for their antics.
5. Ian Holloway
Well if you've seen that interview above you've had a brief insight of what type of character Ian Holloway is. I personally think he'll end up being the first man to write a book on analogies. Holloway has always been known for his quirky interviews, one of my favourites ones was when he explained how he was the man to be the Blackpool manager. He was quoted as saying "I love Blackpool. We're very similar. We both look better in the dark." I don't think there has been a better manager to watch in an interview since Brian Clough.
There are other times where in post match interviews he would explain his thoughts on the game in strange analogies, I'm not sure whether he practiced them the night before or if he made them up on the spot, either way they can only make you smile. After being questioned on Blackpools attacking brand of football in their first season in the Premier League he explained it by saying "If you're a burglar, it's no good poncing about outside somebody's house, looking good with your swag bag ready. Just get in there, burgle them and come out. I don't advocate that obviously, it's just an analogy."
I really hope that Blackpool stay up this season because this man is a major reason for you to stay up for Match Of The Day...
4. Raymond Domenech
Well what can we say about Raymond Domenech? He presided over the the embarrassing World Cup antics of the French National Team who were knocked out in the group stages. He also had a personal bust up with Nicolas Anelka during the tournament, but these aren't even the strangest events in his tenure as France Manager.
At the beginning of his reign he removed Robert Pires from the team. Pires was one of Frances finest players at the time and there were questions over the decision and what it was based on. He responded to the questions by saying "All parameters have to be considered [when selecting players] and I have added one by saying there is astrology involved". Basically it was revealed that the former Arsenal winger was dropped because he was a Scorpio... I let you figure that one out...
Even more ridiculous was his reaction after France were knocked out of Euro 2008. Instead of focusing on the game and his future when he was questioned on it in a post-match interview, he responded with "I have nothing to say about my job, but I will say that I want to marry Estelle." Now you tell me has there ever been anyone who's done anything like that? And you probably won't be surprised she said no...
On the footballing side of things before their World Cup play off against the Republic of Ireland. When he was talking about his opponents he described them as "a sort of England B side." I'm sure the Irish weren't to chuffed with that comparison. Anyway I think you get the point and I thinks that's enough of this strange gentleman.
3. Mario Balotelli
He's only new on the madness scene at the tender age of 20 but the Italian is as sublime as he his mental.
He started early with his antics, his parents were Ghanaian immigrants to Italy, and as a child Balotelli suffered from illness and the cramped lifestyle he was living didn't help him. His parents were advised by the Italian authorities to allow him to be fostered. Following this advise they did so and left him in the care of Francesco and Silvia Balotelli to ensure he is in a financially sound family who can ensure he gets the treatment he needed. His biological parents have tried to contact him and he branded them as "glory hunters" publicly and refuses to talk to them.
During his time with Inter he had many temper tantrums one of the most public ones was in a game against Palermo. Balotelli after a piece of sublime skill and power won a penalty, but after winning it he wanted to take it. Even when designated penalty taker positioned himself he refused to leave the penalty area until captain Javier Zanetti had to pull him away.
There was also the time when he was caught on camera wearing a AC Milan, I'm not to sure if Inter fans were too chuffed with that effort, to be honest I don't understand what possessed him to do something like that. The English equivalent would be Steven Gerrard being photographed in an Everton shirt...
Balotelli also had one of his tantrums after Inters famous Champions League victory over Barcelona at the San Siro, but this time their were consequences... Balotelli was going through what Carlo Ancelloti would call a "bad moment" with the Inter fans who decided to boo him through the match. In response to this Balotelli threw his shirt to the ground after the final whistle and gave a one finger salute to the Inter fans and walked off.
This wasn't the end of this, his colleague Marco Materazzi took exception to Balotellis behaviour and attacked him in the tunnel. A one Zlatan Ibrahimovic gave his eye witness account of the incident
"I saw that Materazzi was attacking him in the players’ tunnel and I’ve never seen anything like it,” Ibrahimovic said. “If I were him, I’d have left Mario alone, but Materazzi was attacking him and I was stunned. If Materazzi had attacked me like that, I would’ve decked him in a second!" “Materazzi was causing all sorts of trouble and in the Barcelona locker room we were amazed, all talking about it. A player should be proud after a win, not chase down a 20-year-old to berate him.” Now I'm not advocating violence or saying that Materazzi is a shrinking violet but this was the kind of reaction Baloteli drew from his colleagues.
Materazzi opinion (not actions) were further repeated through other players and their manager at the time Jose Mourinho. Most notably was Dejan Stankovic turning down an opportunity to adopt Balotelli “He’s like a child. I’m a father of three kids and we can’t take him by the collar, too." Well that was it for "Super Mario" at Inter and he in the end left for Manchester City. Fresh start I hear you say? Well not with this man...
At Manchester City Ballotelli has made 8 appearances scored 5 goals and collected 3 yellow cards and one red. These stats just show the Jekyll and Hyde nature of Super Mario...
2. Paul Gascoigne
How can we not mention Gazza in this? He was is as loopy as they come. I mean he had is alcohol problems which I would like to make clear weren't laughing matters but there's a lot more to him than that. Well because there were so many, I'm not going to be able to go through all his moments of madness but I've just picked out a few of my favourites.
Let's start with his "hit single" Fog On The Tyne. I don't think we need to go into too much detail on that one, take a look yourself.
I hope that your mentally fit to carry on reading after that bit of artistic genius. Gascoigne was also the player who injured himself seriously tackling an opponent. It was the 1991 FA Cup Final and Gascoigne was in the Spurs line up against Nottingham Forest. Gascoigne was visibly pumped up for the game and in the first half he lunged into a tackle on Forest defender Gary Charles. He ended up rupturing his cruciate ligaments and was out for a year. He also went on to extend his return from injury by hurting his knee further in an incident at a Newcastle nightclub.
There was also an incident where Gazza as he is affectionately know was sited in a pub an hour after an England game, still wearing his full England kit, boots included... There was also the moment when he burped into the microphone of an Italian TV station, he was fined £39,000 for his antics on this occasion.
If I'm honest with you I could write a book in his antics never mind an blog, on second thoughts, Thats already been done with his autobiography...
His most recent stunt was to turn up at the scene of an armed stand off between armed police and Britains most wanted man at the time Raoul Moat. He claimed that he and Moat had been good friends and that he could assist in the situation, he also brought a can of lager and some chicken for the fugitive. Police quickly found out that there was not connection between the men and escorted him away from the scene.
1. Rene "El Loco" Higuita
Come on, he's got to be number one, his middle name is "the crazy one", if your labeled crazy in Colombia it's got to count for something doesn't it? Now this guy would make the head of the goalkeepers union cringe with some of the stunts he pulled off in important games.
An example of Higuitas on pitch craziness was in Italia 90. Colombia were 1-0 down in extra time and trying to get back into the game. Then Higuita came out to pick up the ball. He received a pass from his defender and instead of clearing it he tried to take Cameroonian striker Roger Milla on and you guessed it Milla stole the ball of him and scored.
Another famous moment of craziness from our man Rene was his famous scorpion kick in a friendly against England. A normal goalkeeper when facing a deep raking ball into his six yard box would catch or maybe punch it, but not Higuita he decided to do it a bit differently...
Outside football Higuita acted as a go-between for Colombian drug lords... Yes you heard that right, he acted as the middleman during negotiations between the famous Pablo Escobar and Carlos Molina, who's daughter Escobar had kidnapped. For his services Higuita recieved $64,000. What Higuita didn't realise was that profiting from kidnap is a criminal offence, he ended up in prison for 7 months and missed the 1994 World Cup.
More recently in 2004 he was banned after failing a drug test when he was tested positive for cocaine. I mean who didn't see that coming? I mean look at the company he kept... I leave you with a few clips of Higuita just showing how mad he actually was...
