30 THINGS YOU PROBABLY DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT MARIO BALOTELLI (PART 2)

After the first part where we gave you some info on Mario Balotelli, things seemed to look great for the player. However, as he got more famous and wealthy, he started creating headlines with far more than great games.

DRIVING AROUND WITH LOADS OF MONEY

In 2011 while he was playing in Manchester the police pulled him over while he was driving his outrageous Maserati. Apart from the famous football player in the car they found $25,000 recklessly sitting at the front seat. Of course, they asked him why this was so and he just said “because I can”.

Similarly, while still in Manchester, he crashed his Audi R8 near his team’s training ground. When the police arrived they found 5,000 pounds in his pocket.

PLAYING DARTS WITH MOVING TARGETS

Again in Manchester, he was fined 100,000 pounds by the club. The fine resulted from an unusual game Balotelli played to amuse himself. Apparently, he was throwing darts at youth players from a window of the training ground. The fine may seem significantly high but, at that time, this is what Balotelli earned in a week.

FOUL MOUTH ON TV

His team also played the FA cup final against Stoke and Balotelli was one of the best players in the game. However, his bad language also made headlines.  After the game during the post-match interview for TV the interviewer asked him if that had been his best game of the season and his reply started with “My whole season was shit. Can I say that?” Obviously you can, but you really shouldn’t.  Watch the video of this incident below.

WEIRD CELEBRATIONS

His weird sense of humor was also presented after one of the games in Manchester. While Bosnian football player Edin Dzeko, who was Balotelli’s teammate, was wandering around the field celebrating a win, Balotelli came from behind and grabbed his teammate’s legs tripping him.  Being very happy after the game and probably used to this kind of behavior from Balotelli, Dzeko did not seem to be offended.  See the video below.

THIS BIB DOESN’T WORK

The bib fail is probably one of the most famous videos of Balotelli. During a training session including a match between two teams consisting of players from Manchester City he was required to wear a bib so that his side could be distinguished from their opponents. His attempts to do this were some of the funniest moments in the world of sports at the time.  Here’s the video below for your enjoyment.

A STROLL THROUGH A PRISON

Balotelli once ended up in prison. And it was a women’s prison. Although this may sound like the beginning of a movie, it was actually just curiosity which brought Balotelli and he is, at the time, 17 years old brother Enock to the inside of a women’s prison in Brescia near Milan. The stunned police officers who arrested the brothers were told by Balotelli that they just wanted to have a look.

FIGHTS WITH TEAMMATES

Again problems during a training session and again during a training match. On one such occasion Balotelli tackled one of his teammates really hard seriously risking an injury and this infuriated his manager, a famous Italian, Roberto Mancini. Mancini got so angry that he actually got into physical confrontation with Balotelli. Everything worked out fine, but pictures did emerge and the world knew about the issue.

Similarly, Balotelli got into a real fistfight with another one of his teammates called Jerome Boateng. Needless to say, Mancini was not happy.

A PRE-MATCH – FIREWORKS

One of the most famous Manchester derby matches was the one when Balotelli’s Manchester City beat their archrivals Manchester United, one of the strongest teams in today’s soccer, 6 – 1. Balotelli scored two goals and was one of the best players on the pitch.  However, just 36 hours before the game, Balotelli had a big house fire.  The fire was caused by fireworks which were let off by Mario himself – in his own bathroom.  Why he thought this was a good idea and what he thought was going to happen with fireworks in the bathroom remains unknown and completely unclear.

SAY ‘NO’ TO RACISM

Racism followed Balotelli for a long time. However, if your enemies know what makes you angry they are sure to use this to their advantage. By Euro 2012 he had had enough of racist insults and he decided to give a pretty fiery statement in which he said he would kill anyone who would prove to be racist during the Euro saying:

“I will not accept racism at all. It’s unacceptable. If someone throws a banana at me in the street, I will go to jail, because I will kill them.”

Although we would not condone violence, we do, however, absolutely support attempts to remove racism from sports completely.

STOMPING ON HEADS

Protecting his own rights comes naturally to Balotelli, as it should, but fair play is not always the first thing on his mind when other players are in question. A closed match against Wolves was the place where he decided to stomp on a competitor’s player’s head. In the heat of the game, Mario did this and probably thought no one would know. However, it was caught on camera and the world could see this

Still, cameras did not prevent him from doing a similar, if not worse, thing to Tottenham’s Scott Parker. The repetitive nature of the gif below only enhances the misdeed.

You would think that he would finally lay off Manchester City after all this, but you would be very wrong. Wait for our next part to see what mischief he was up to next and what Jose Mourinho had to say about Mario Balotelli.

Click here for Part 1 | Part 3