FACT AND FICTION

‘There’s only one player that is a little stronger than me: Messi. All of the others are behind me.’

Mario Balotelli, 2011

Of course Mario is as famed for his antics away from the game as he is for his feats on the field. Never far away from a front page splash as he is from one on the back pages of the tabloids, he is a red-top hack’s dream – whether a news reporter or a football writer. Not since the halcyon days of David Beckham has a footballer dominated the newspaper execs’ agenda as Mario now does in England.

His every move – and mistake – is documented in print and online. There is no hiding place and so any unfavourable incident can cause particular problems and run-ins with his boss at City, Roberto Mancini.

In this chapter, we will try to get our heads around some of the numerous incidents Mario has allegedly been involved in (others are covered in separate chapters on Inter Milan and Mario’s first two seasons at City) and try to make sense of whether they are inventions of the media and the gossip-makers, or have some truth in them. Plus we will look at some items from people close to Mario and Manchester City that have NOT been bandied about in public, but which are said to hold some authenticity.

All the anecdotes are in no particular chronological order – neither are they rated in order of perceived importance. Just days before he arrived at City in August, 2010, Mario had to make a public apology after he and a group of friends fired air pistols in the open in Milan’s Piazza della Repubblica. ‘I did a stupid thing when I fired the pistol,’ he told Sky Sports after he played 59 minutes in Italy’s 1-0 loss to Ivory Coast. ‘But the journalists blew everything out of proportion. And it’s not true that I’m not a team player.’

That statement appeared hard to justify at an earlier match for the Italian national team when he angered the manager by refusing to wear the new home kit endorsed by the Italian FA. Balotelli came out in the old kit, claiming he didn’t like the new one…

And then there was the incident in Italy in October 2010 when Mario and his 17-year-old brother Enoch drove into a women’s prison in their hometown of Brescia. They had been curious to see just what it was like – and apparently wandered around for a few minutes before they were detained and questioned by prison officers. Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport claimed the duo were eventually released after half an hour of questioning. Prison officer Calogero Lo Presti told the paper, ‘It was 1600 when we saw a high-powered Mercedes come through the gate. Inside were two boys, after a few minutes we realised one of them was Balotelli. Physically we recognised him, but that is not enough, so we proceeded with official procedure. At the end they both appeared a bit frightened.

‘They said they saw the gate opened and never imagined they would need a special permit to visit the prison. The two were particularly intrigued by the fact it was a women’s prison. Balotelli has apologised. He spoke in a low voice, he was a little embarrassed.’ Balotelli’s agent, Mino Raiola, played down the incident and said, ‘Mario has done nothing wrong. Indeed, the officers have praised him for his initiative. Certainly they explained this could have been avoided, but it ended there. What I find strange is that a public official rushed to say what had happened. Nothing happened. It was only emphasised because it’s Mario.’

Mario was a City player at the time – he had returned home for a few days’ break. The hacks in England were fascinated by his antics away from the pitch and devoted acres of newsprint to him as he now returned to City. The Daily Mail, for instance, did a piece on Mario and his ‘extravagant lifestyle’ – the standfirst of which sums up how the tabloids quickly viewed the man they have dubbed, ‘Madcap Mario’. It read like this, ‘He’s the Manchester City footballer who this week admitted to having a fling with the same prostitute as Wayne Rooney. This is the same star who, last year, caused a blaze at his £3m Cheshire mansion by shooting fireworks out of the bathroom window with his friends. The 21-year-old, who is paid £125,000-a-week, has collected an estimated £10,000 worth of parking tickets leaving his Bentley on double yellow lines. His home is a seven-bedroom mansion reached by a sweeping drive, at the end of which an ornate stone fountain surrounded by a circular miniature box hedge creates a turning circle for visitors’ cars – not to mention his own, a white £140,000 Bentley Continental GT with a top speed of 198mph.

‘The £3million house is familiar to Cheshire firemen who, late last year, were called there at 1am and had to use breathing apparatus while putting out a fierce blaze on the first floor started by fireworks being shot out of the bathroom window.’

Yes…the infamous fireworks incident. It happened on Saturday October 21, 2011, when Mario had a few friends around for the evening at ‘the £3million house in Cheshire’ (which he was only renting by the way). Yes, a firework was set off in the bathroom and, yes, the fire brigade were needed to put out a blaze in the bathroom that was threatening to spread elsewhere. The Sun reported the incident thus, ‘Two fire engines were sent to the house of Mario Balotelli last night – after a firework went off in his bathroom. The Manchester City striker escaped unharmed after the late night incident at his home. Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service discovered a fire in the bathroom on the first floor, with four firefighters dousing the flames using their hose. A spokesman for the fire department said: “Crews managed to put the fire out within half an hour of arriving but remained at the scene until 2.45am to prevent any possible flare-ups. Smoke alarms were fitted at the property and the occupiers were able to get out unharmed. The fire was caused by a firework.”’

But, contrary to most reports, I am assured that Mario was NOT involved in setting off the fireworks and was therefore certainly NOT to blame for the blaze. It was the act of one of his guests, who certainly was out of order and ‘probably a little tipsy’. The guest apparently – and dangerously – was trying to throw the firework out of the bathroom window towards some other revellers who were enjoying a drink in the back garden of the house.

Mario’s culpability began and ended with the fact that he had invited guests who would even contemplate letting off a firework in a house, and for not keeping an eye on them. Regarding the latter, I am told that he had gone to bed an hour or so before the incident, that he was keen to get some shut-eye before a certain football match the following day that just happened to be against arch rivals, Manchester United.

Of course, Mancini was not happy about the incident or the headlines – and neither were the club – but they accepted Balotelli’s explanation of events. He told them he was ‘really angry’ with his friend and the aggravation that followed, which cost him more than just his beauty sleep. He apparently had to cough up the best part of £100,000 to sort out the wrecked bathroom suite and rid the house of smoke damage at the property in Mottram St Andrew, a leafy Cheshire suburb.

On top of that, he ran up a bill approaching another £50k staying in a £1,000 a night suite at the Hilton Hotel in Manchester city centre until he could return to the Cheshire house after it was refurbished. But all City fans cared about the following day in October 2011 was how he would perform against United at Old Trafford in the Premier League clash. He certainly did not let them down – scoring two of the goals as they thrashed United 6-1.