Читать книгу Why Always Me? - The Biography of Mario Balotelli, City's Legendary Striker - Frank Worrall - Страница 12

What should have been an easy-going, fun summer for Mario Balotelli proved somewhat less enjoyable as he weighed up the imminent arrival of new Inter Milan boss Mourinho. With mentor and surrogate father figure Mancini gone away into self-enforced retirement (for a season at least), Balotelli wondered what the future would hold for him – as, to be fair, did all the Internazionale players that summer.

Would he fit in with Mourinho’s plans – or would he fail to gel with the Portuguese? At least there was one big boost for Mario that early summer of 2008 – when Inter approached him to let him know that they wanted him to sign a new deal, so pleased was club supreme Moratti with his efforts. It was a deal signed before Mourinho arrived – probably just as well, you might say, given the benefit of hindsight about how the two of them so consistently rubbed each other up the wrong way!

It was confirmed by Inter that they had signed him on a three-year contract that would take him through to June 2011. ‘Mario Balotelli has signed a new contract with F.C. Internazionale that ties him to the club until 30 June 2011,’ the club said. ‘The documents were registered at the Italian Football League’s offices this morning.’

Agence France-Presse (AFP) commented, ‘Balotelli made a massive impression in 2007/08 after being given a first-team opportunity. He played an important part in Inter holding their nerve in the run-in to the title, and his pace and power allowed him to score an impressive seven goals in 15 matches. 12 August will be doubly significant, because when he turns 18 he will qualify for an Italian passport and the right to compete for the national teams. He has already turned down various offers from Ghana and had he celebrated his birthday before August, there was a realistic chance that he may have been included in Pierluigi Casiraghi’s squad at the Olympic Games in Beijing.’

Delighted Mario may have been about his new deal – and certainly it left him more settled and at ease at the club – but now he had to convince his tough new Portuguese boss that he was the boy-man to do the business for him. That he was good enough to lead the attack in tandem with the already established No 1 striker, Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Mourinho arrived at the San Siro for pre-season training in the summer of 2008 and promised that he would give all the existing players at the club a fair chance to prove themselves under him. Whether he truly meant it or not is highly debatable – particularly with the younger players like Mario. Certainly when he first arrived at Chelsea – and indeed throughout his tenure there – he never really struck me as a man who wanted to nurture and develop young talent. The thing is this with Jose: he is a short-termist. He likes to arrive at a club, win trophies with players who are at their peak – whether they are already in the squad or need to be brought in expensively – and then move on.

He never developed a youth policy at Chelsea that would pay dividends in the years after his exit – nor did he do so at Inter Milan. So Mario was right to be cautious about the new manager’s arrival. The Telegraph’s talented writer Rory Smith superbly summed up the essence of ‘Mourinhoism’ when he commented on his tenure at the San Siro, saying, ‘It is not to denigrate Mourinho’s gifts to accuse him of short-termism. That is what he does, and he does it better than anyone. Take his signings at Inter in the summer of 2009, before his last, silver-laden season: Diego Milito, Wesley Sneijder, Samuel Eto’o. Hardly building for the future. He rarely used Inter’s young talents – Davide Santon remains the most obvious – and even his training methods were designed to produce results simply for that one campaign. His successors found a squad short on conditioning, thanks to Mourinho’s rigid adherence to a training plan short on stamina work.’

In his first full season at Inter, Mario had made 15 appearances and scored seven goals – a respectable return of a goal every other game. In his first season under Mourinho, he would play in double the number of games of his first campaign, a total of 30, and hit the back of the net nine times. So his appearances were more frequent, but his goals less so – now registering at the rate of one every three games, instead of two.

Mourinho had arrived on a three-year contract and within three months had won his first Italian honour, the Supercoppa Italiana – in no small part thanks to the efforts of Balotelli, who came on as a second-half substitute for Figo. After 80 minutes the match appeared to be heading for a 1-1 draw and extra time. Sulley Muntari had put Inter ahead on 18 minutes, only for Daniele de Rossi to equalise on the hour. But as extra-time loomed, the match unexpectedly sizzled into life. Mario put Inter ahead once again with seven minutes remaining and, right at the death, Murko Vucinic saved the day for Roma. Extra time failed to find a winner and so it was down to the lottery of penalties.

Inter now finally put the tie to bed, winning 6-5 from the spot. Mario again played his part, banging home the second penalty. As the Associated Press (AP) reported at the time, ‘Serie A champions Inter Milan defeated Italian Cup holders AS Roma on penalty kicks to win their fourth Italian Super Cup. Roma captain Francesco Totti, in his first game back after a knee injury in April, missed his penalty that would have given his side victory. Roma came from behind twice in regulation time in front of 43,000 spectators at Milan’s San Siro stadium. The two teams failed to score in extra-time. Inter regained the cup which was launched in 1998 and pits the winners of Serie A against the winners of the Italian Cup. Mario Balotelli scored in the 83rd with an easy shot when he found himself one-on-one with Roma goalkeeper Alexander Doni after an offside trap failed.’

Mourinho, who had spent most of the match stuck to the bench, was delighted with Mario and the team. His premise on arriving at any club has always been to win some silverware – however small it may appear at the time – just to get something on the board, and in the trophy cabinet. This was his first trophy win through a penalty shootout and probably the high point of his relationship with Mario. He knew the boy had real talent and had seen him apply himself and help win the trophy. He could ask no more of him…yet, at least.

Heading towards December 2008, Mario cemented his relationship with Mourinho by scoring his first Champions League goal. He netted the first goal in the 3-3 draw with Cypriot side Anorthosis Famagusta, at the same time entering the record books as the youngest Inter player (at 18 years and 85 days) to score in the Champions League. His feat eclipsed the previous record set by Obafemi Martins at 18 years and 145 days.

If the goal against the Cypriots was the highlight of Balotelli’s second season in the senior squad at Inter, there was no quibbling at all over what were the low points. The first came a couple of weeks after the Christmas decorations had come down – in the middle of January 2009 when he had his first major run-in with Mourinho. The Portuguese was unhappy with Mario’s post-Christmas work on the training field and felt that his attitude had deteriorated too. It all came to a head with Mourinho blowing his top and wringing his hands in despair. Fifa.com reported, ‘Teenage Inter Milan star Mario Balotelli has paid for his poor attitude with coach Jose Mourinho excluding him from first team action until the end of the month. The 18-year-old son of Ghanaian immigrants is considered to be Italy’s finest young talent and has already played for the Italy U-21 side four times, scoring three goals.

‘The striker broke into the Inter side during the second half of last season and has seen regular playing time alongside star Sweden forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic during this campaign. However Mourinho, a stickler for discipline, dropped him from his squad, criticising Balotelli’s application to training, and on Monday he revealed that things have not improved.’

Mourinho said, ‘Nothing has changed, neither Balotelli’s way of training nor his attitude. His brother (and agent) has made it clear that Mario wants to go out on loan but I will wait until the end of the transfer window after which he will understand that he has to stay. Maybe then he will change his attitude and return to the first team fold.’

Mourinho was still of the belief that Mario could be one of the best players in the world – but said he needed to apply himself more seriously. ‘As far as I’m concerned a young boy like him cannot allow himself to train less than people like [Luis] Figo, [Ivan] Cordoba or [Javier] Zanetti,’ said Mourinho. ‘I can’t accept that from someone who is still a nobody, who hasn’t made it yet, who is still a talent with potential. He needs to train harder, to understand what are the important things for me which I think are important for him and his future.

‘Because if he was to train half as hard as players like Zanetti and the others, he would be one of the best in the world. But he only trains 25 per cent as hard. Hence in January he will definitely stay here to learn how to train well.’

Mourinho suspended him but kept him at the club, refusing all further pleas for him to go out on loan elsewhere. That in itself was, of course, a major compliment – why would you keep someone unless you thought they were talented? Mourinho had already said he thought Mario could be one of the world’s best – and now he was determined to push him hard to achieve that end. That the peace between them would never be established and that they would continue to fall out during a spell that would see Mourinho bring the ultimate club trophy, the Champions League, to the club says a lot about their similar personalities and egos.

Milan simply was not big enough for the both of them – both wanted to be the main man, the star, the darling of the fans but that was never possible with a manager like Mourinho, who insisted on total control and taking total credit for any success.

In April 2009 Balotelli scored Inter’s goal in the 1–1 draw with Juventus and was racially abused by Juventus fans throughout the game, with chants such as ‘Black Italians do not exist’.

Inter supreme Massimo Moratti was furious at the treatment of his star young player, saying he would have ordered his team to leave the field of play if he had been present. ‘If I had been at the stadium, at a certain point I would have left my seat in the stand, I would have gone onto the pitch and I would have pulled the team off,’ Moratti told Gazzetta dello Sport.

‘They seemed proud and happy to sing those things. This is terrible.’

Juve president Giovanni Cobolli Gigli apologised to Balotelli and Inter and admitted Serie A had a problem with racism – and that the culture of racism among fans had to end. ‘On behalf of Juventus and the great majority of our fans I want to strongly condemn the racist chanting against Inter Milan’s Mario Balotelli,’ he said. ‘There are no excuses or justification for this type of behaviour. Episodes such as this are inexcusable. Together we must all try to promote a sporting culture that puts respect for the adversary at its core and fights against racism.’

Reuters reported that ‘racist abuse is not uncommon in Italian soccer and small fines are usually handed out’. But this time the Italian football authorities finally showed their teeth, as the BBC reported, ‘Juventus have been ordered to play a home game behind closed doors after their fans racially abused Inter Milan striker Mario Balotelli at the weekend. The 18-year-old scored Inter’s goal in the 1-1 Serie A draw and was taunted by sections of the Juve crowd in Turin. The Italy under-21 international was born in Palermo, Sicily, but is of Ghanaian descent.

‘The Italian League is likely to bar fans from Juve’s home game against Lecce on 3 May…the abuse suffered by Balotelli on Saturday prompted league officials to come down heavily on Juventus.’

An Italian League statement read: ‘The sporting judge considered that in the course of the game and on multiple occasions, fans of the home team, in various sections of the stadium, sang songs which included racial discrimination. Juventus are therefore obliged to play one game behind closed doors.’

The statement, in conjunction with the Italian Soccer Federation, added that the abuse was ‘deplorable’ and could not be excused as sporting passion.

Balotelli was understandably upset and angered by the incident, but at least he had the satisfaction of knowing his goal had as good as knocked second placed Juve out of the title race. With just six games now remaining, Inter were 10 points clear of their bitter Turin rivals.

The Telegraph explained what had led to the racist outburst, saying, ‘He [Balotelli] angered home fans throughout the game, particularly for his role in the dismissal of Juve midfielder Tiago. Balotelli was playing keep ball on the touchline with Sulley Muntari, when Tiago let his frustrations get the better of him and kicked both of them, earning a straight red card. Balotelli, who fell down from Tiago’s fairly innocuous kick, earned the wrath of a small section of the home fans.’

Of course, Mario’s actions in no way excuse the reaction: racism in any shape or form in football is deplorable – as Marcello Nicchi, president of the Italian Referees’ Association (Aia), agreed at the time, ‘There are 16,000 matches played in Italy every weekend, we have to send out the right signals and educate the people,’ he said. ‘The racist chants directed at Balotelli are very serious; Uefa and Fifa are always talking about eliminating them. Referees don’t have the power to stop a match but they can report on the events to the right authorities.’

Fans in England got their first look at Balotelli in February 2009, when Mourinho lifted the suspension on the player and he came on as a sub in the Champions League first leg against Manchester United at the San Siro. The match ended 0-0 and Mario made little impact, having only 13 minutes to show his worth.

In the return leg at Old Trafford a month later – Mario’s first appearance in England – he started the match, lasting 70 minutes until he was replaced by veteran Luis Figo. United won 2-0 and both Balotelli and Mourinho would exit Manchester disappointed and frustrated. Mario had at least set up Ibrahimovic for what was arguably his team’s best first-half chance, but the Swede blew the ball wide of Edwin van der Sar’s goal. So it was United who went into the last eight of the Champions League – although Mourinho would have more luck the next season, the one in which Inter finally won the competition for the first time in its present format.

Mourinho praised the character of his team, including even Balotelli whom he had previously lambasted for a lack of application, and added, ‘United scored two goals over the course of the two games and we have to accept that, in football, the team that wins always deserves it but I don’t think we should be negative about my team’s display. We played a great match against a great team. We just lacked that little bit of luck you need to win, that little thing that makes that difference between winning and not winning.

‘We went one down after a couple of minutes but we had three chances to score in the first half, more than our opponents, and we hit the bar from 10ft out. In the second half we lost another goal but we continued to play and we showed great character.’

Mourinho sounded a little deflated but issued a rallying cry to Mario and his team-mates, telling them they would now at least go on to collect a fourth consecutive Serie A crown back in Italy. They were still top of the table, seven points clear of second-placed Juventus. ‘We have not been good enough to win the Champions League but we are good enough to win the Scudetto and I’m sure we will go on and win it,’ he said before leaving Manchester with his team.

The Portuguese was right about that – his team did go on to win the Italian league again (the first time under his tenure). Mario had, understandably, been low after the defeat in Manchester but celebrated with his team-mates after they confirmed their Serie A title triumph with a strolling 3-0 win over minnows Siena on 17 May, 2009. AC Milan had lost 2-1 away at Udinese the previous day to set the scene for Inter’s 17th Scudetto.

It was a day of personal triumph for Balotelli. He scored one and set one up for co-striker Ibrahimovic. Mario’s free kick was deflected after 43 minutes, falling in the path of Zlatan, who could hardly miss.

Balotelli then made it 2-0 on 51 minutes, taking the ball round Gianluca Curci before sliding it calmly inside the near post. Inter would eventually finish 10 points ahead of rivals AC.

The 2009/10 season would turn out to be the last at the club for Balotelli and Mourinho. Both would leave in the summer of 2010, with Jose heading for Real Madrid and Mario, of course, on his way to Manchester City and an emotional reunion with his mentor, Mancini.

Mario’s last season at the San Siro saw him make a further 39 appearances for Inter, with him grabbing a total of 11 goals in three competitions (Serie A, the Italian Cup and the Champions League). Predictably, given the natures of Mario and Jose, it was a season packed with incident, controversy and disputes between the two of them.

In November, Inter drew 1–1 against Roma and Mourinho lashed out verbally at Mario for his showing, saying he was ‘close to a zero rating’. Mirko Vucinic had put Roma ahead in the 13th minute but Samuel Eto’o – who had arrived at Inter from Barcelona in a swap deal that involved Ibrahimovic going in the opposite direction – earned his new team a point early in the second half. Balotelli had replaced Patrick Vieira at half-time.

The defeat left Inter five points behind second-placed Juventus and Mourinho moaned, ‘It has been an awful game from everyone. There was a team that was unable to win, another team that didn’t want to win and someone else [the referee] who made too many calls. I didn’t like the game. The only thing that I liked was the result. We took a point at home against a team that has quality like Roma and that is fine.’

But his view of Balotelli was far from fine. He rapped, ‘Balotelli? In my opinion he came close to a zero rating. I didn’t like how he played. He is 19 but could have done much better.’

They were hardly the sort of words that would endear him to Mario. The battle lines had now been drawn and Balotelli would continue to push Mourinho to the limit. The two endured an uneasy peace as the 2009/10 season wore on. At least Mourinho was one of the first to support Mario when he once again fell foul of abuse from the fans of Juventus (who had, of course, racially abused him the previous season).

Inter lost 2-1 to Juve in Turin on December 5, 2009. It was sparked off when Juve midfielder Felipe Melo elbowed Mario in the shoulder – with Mario falling on to the ground as if he had been shot. He held his face in apparent agony and was booked by an unimpressed referee. Melo, meanwhile, was sent off for a second yellow card. Mourinho refused to condemn Mario for his part in the blow-up.

But the duo were back at loggerheads when Inter travelled to Jose’s old club, Chelsea, for the second leg of their Champions League knockout clash in March, 2010. Mario did not travel to London after a fresh row with Mourinho, as The Guardian explained, ‘Inter – with whom he [Mourinho] claimed the domestic title last season – may top Serie A again, albeit by a solitary point, but the 47-year-old is enduring a relatively torrid time in Italy at present. Defeat at lowly Catania last Friday has allowed Milan to gain ground in the championship race, while Mourinho and his Italian striker Mario Balotelli were reportedly embroiled in a spat at training in Milan today which has resulted in the forward being omitted from the squad for disciplinary reasons. Carlo Ancelotti has since suggested he might seek to work with Balotelli at Chelsea.’

The latter never happened – but other Inter Milan players were now quick to criticise Mario. Inter captain Javier Zanetti said after Inter’s win at Chelsea, ‘We need everyone. If Balotelli saw the game, then he needs to realise how you stay in this team. If that’s the way he can feel important in the squad, then he can help us too.’

And Marco Materazzi also got in on the act, telling Sky Sport Italia: ‘He should send one [a message] to us instead and thank his team-mates who got him to the quarter-finals. If he wants to be a part of this group, we are happy because he is a really strong player, but if he wants to go somewhere else, the door is open. The president has already shown that he won’t hold back anyone who wants to leave.

‘It’s not true that we don’t love him – we love him a little too much. He must be a fan of this team because the president treats him like a son, and so do I. This is our group, if he wants to be a part of it.’

Only Inter supremo Moratti came out with unconditional support of Mario, who was always one of his favourites at the club, but backed Mourinho’s decision to axe him from the trip to London. ‘Mourinho made the right decision, so it means someone else did not do the right thing for the club,’ he said. ‘As I consider Balotelli to be a player of immense talent, I trust he will now prove he is a great professional and Mourinho will be very happy to field him again.’

It was becoming clear that Balotelli and Mourinho would not be able to work together – the only question on many pundits’ lips in Italy was when the break-up would come. Mario did not help his own cause – in March 2010, he made a terrible blunder when he appeared on an Italian comedy show in an AC Milan shirt. Now he had not only fallen foul of Mourinho, but also his own fans who took none too kindly at him appearing in the shirt of their most bitter rivals.

The website Yahoo Sport summed up Mario’s moment of true madness, saying, ‘As if Inter Milan teenage striker Mario Balotelli didn’t have enough problems as it is, what with all of Italy hating him and his constant spats with Jose Mourinho, wearing the shirt of his club’s most hated rival probably wasn’t the best way to solve his problems. But that’s exactly what he did on Italian comedy show Striscia la noticia after they presented him with their jokey Tapiro d’Oro award for not playing in Inter’s Champions League win over Chelsea or last weekend’s draw against Palermo.

‘After giving him the fake golden statue, they then gave Balotelli an AC Milan shirt featuring his name and number, much to the delight of the self-proclaimed Milanista. The Striscia cameras later caught Mario wearing the shirt, causing his agent to get defensive, saying he is a “boy of 19 who may not understand the consequences of what he does” and “I hope the fans understand that you cannot take a program like Striscia seriously”.’

They didn’t and Mario was now forced to make a very public apology on the Inter Milan website. It read, ‘I am sorry for the situation that has been created recently. I am the first person who has suffered because I adore football and I want to play, and now I am waiting in silence so I can return to being useful to my team. I want to put the past behind me, look to the future and concentrate on the upcoming commitments and make myself ready.’

They were words of contrition…but did Mario mean them? Maybe he did at the time, but his subsequent actions suggested he did not fully appreciate the precariousness of his situation. That any more indiscretions could see him out the door – especially if he got on the wrong side of the people who matter most at any football clubs. Yes, the fans who ultimately pay the players’ wages.

The point of no return would come in the Champions League semi-final first leg against Barcelona in Milan on April 20, 2010. Just a fortnight earlier it had seemed Mario was back on track and living up to his pledge to have turned over a new leaf – as he scored in the 3-0 win over Bologna. CNN reported on his triumphant return, saying, ‘Young striker Mario Balotelli made a goalscoring return to Inter Milan’s line-up as the Italian champions bounced back from last weekend’s defeat to maintain a one-point lead in Serie A on Saturday. The 19-year-old was welcomed back into the squad after apologising during the week following his falling-out with manager Jose Mourinho, and helped Inter stay ahead of Roma with a 3-1 victory at home to Bologna.

‘It was a successful end to a mixed week for Mourinho, who had announced his unhappiness with Italian football before Wednesday’s 1-0 win over CSKA Moscow in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals. Brazilian midfielder Thiago Motta put Inter ahead in the 29th minute with the first of his two goals, firing in a shot from the edge of the penalty area after controlling the ball on his chest. Balotelli marked his first outing since March 7 with the second seven minutes after halftime with a cool finish following a pass from strike partner Diego Milito.’

But on 20 April, he fell from grace spectacularly amid the euphoria of Inter’s 3-1 win over Barca at the San Siro, a vital result as they would then go on to win the Champions League. Mario had only come on as a late sub and lost his temper after Inter fans groaned when he made a mistake. At the end of the match, he took off his Inter shirt and threw it to the ground in a gesture to the fans.

They did not like it. His career with the club was now as good as over – the necessary bond between players and fans had been broken for good. There would be no way back this time. Mario Balotelli had run out of excuses at Internazionale.

Italian sports newspaper La Gazetta dello Sport explained the breach in this way, ‘The misunderstanding with the Nerazzurri fans started when Mario misplayed a counterattack: the lad, on hearing the complaints from the stands, was not impressed. And he lost his head, insulting the fans (reading his lips made that clear) during and after the match. There were also some tense moments an hour after the end of the match. The striker went down to the parking garage to get into his car and leave San Siro, but a group of fans approached him, insulting him and trying to attack him. Security personnel from the club managed to move the aggressors away so that the player could leave the stadium.’

When he most needed support, Mario now found none. Captain Zanetti led the chorus of disapproval, saying, ‘Mario needs to focus on doing what he can do on the pitch, he can’t allow himself to behave like this. He needs to be intelligent and understand that the fans, at a match like this, can be edgy.’

Inter’s managing director Ernesto Paolillo said, ‘Balotelli’s gesture? Appalling, absolutely appalling. It is something that will need to be discussed.’ Then, when the Press pack asked if it would lead to disciplinary action, he barked, ‘Absolutely.’

Italian footballing legend Roberto Baggio added to the discussion, saying, ‘Balotelli is a great talent, but he needs to change his attitude. Behaving like this does not make him many friends.’

But it was Mourinho who would hammer in the final nail on Mario’s coffin as he told RAI, ‘I saw an ugly thing. I have been at Inter since July 2009. I remember thousands of pieces of “advice” I got from lots of luminaries in Italy because I wanted to try to educate a talented player. Today in an important showcase like a Champions League semi-final, with the eyes of the world watching, an ugly thing happened.’

It was the end of the road for Mario at Inter: he had burned all his bridges and run out of road. The only thing to be decided now was when he would go and where he would go.

That would soon be answered when Mancini came to his rescue; effectively saving his career and, as history will probably show, saving himself from himself. The only surprise was that he would last longer than his arch enemy Mourinho at the San Siro. Mourinho would become Real Madrid manager on 31 May, 2010 – just days after taking Inter to that wonderful Champions League triumph at Real’s Bernabeu home – while Mario would leave Inter and join Manchester City nine weeks later, on Friday 13 August, 2010.

Friday the 13th…unlucky for some, but not for Mario Balotelli. The boy was about to link up again with his favourite footballing person on the planet – Mancini. Now let’s take a closer look at Roberto and his career – and how he crossed paths with Mario, and decided he would take him under his wing and become known as his ‘surrogate footballing father’.