Since the well-publicized transfer of Mario Balotelli from Milan to Liverpool last summer, the striker doesn’t seem to be having much luck. He has only made 2 goals so far, neither in the Premier League. However, talk that he is going to be transferred to Italian football club Juventus have been quelled by Juventus’ head, Massimiliano Allegri denying the rumors.
Tuttosport reported Allegri saying that while “Balotelli has done very well with me (he worked with the striker in Milan), he belongs to Liverpool, and he is not a player that can arrive at Juventus.”
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Balotelli’s manager, Mino Raiola defended the decision to bring him to Liverpool, and told Italian TV station RAI that Balotelli has faced many challenges, included a groin injury since November and insisted it was absolutely the right thing for him to leave Milan. He added, “Mario has gone to the best league in the world. Mario has been out for almost 10 weeks with an injury, and you cannot judge him until he is 100% fit. It’s not easy to go abroad and adapt quickly to a new team.” Concerning taking Mario from Milan to Liverpool, Raiola said, “I’d do it again.”
Bathchronicle U.K reports that while Juventus might not want Balotelli, but he could get elbowed out by Napoli striker Gonzalo Higuain and goalkeeper Sergio Romero, Liverpool might have to get rid of Balotelli to do it. The question is, if Juventus doesn’t want Balotelli, where will he go?
A groin injury might have kept Balotelli from making goals, but it didn’t prevent him from making a pass at a Norwegian fan’s girlfriend on Instagram. The boyfriend was not jealous, got a kick out of the fact that the Liverpool striker was gunning for his girl and posted the hilarity of the chat on Instagram. This social media gaffe followed a bigger one that could have led to a suspension. Balotelli was accused of racist and anti-semitic remarks when he posted a pic of Super Mario with the caption:
Don’t be racist! Be like Mario. He’s an Italian plumber created by Japanese people who speaks English and looks like a Mexican …jumps like a black man and grabs coins like a Jew.”
While he insisted he was making fun of racism and says his mother was Jewish, to clear him of the charge of anti-semitism (only partially true; his foster mother was Jewish), it seems that Balotelli should spend more time making goals on the field than making gaffes on social media.
