Mario Balotelli is being lined up by new Arsenal manager Unai Emery with a shock move to North London. Having left Nice at the end of the season, completing a relatively successful spell for the Italian in a tumultuous career, Mario is now searching for a new club willing to take the mercurial striker, and his eccentricities, on.
As Italy are, of course, not competing own the World Cup this summer, Balotelli can take his time sifting through his suitors, but would any English club take a risk that has failed to pay off in past incarnations? This will be Mad Mario’s third stint of playing in the Premier League, after spells at both Manchester City, between 2010 and 2013, and Liverpool for just under two years from 2014.
Balotelli will be remembered fondly by the Cityzens, who enjoyed conjuring up fantastical stories about his exploits his unpredictable but endearing personality supported, and he famously provided the assist for Sergio Aguero in extra-time for City to win the Premier League over city-rivals United and their first title in 43 years. He managed to record 30 goals in this time in Manchester.
Balotelli’s time at Liverpool, however, was far less successful. On the back of a season where Liverpool had come agonisingly close to winning their first Premier League title, Brendan Rodgers brought in Balotelli from AC Milan, which yielded just one league goal during his period playing for the Anfield club.
Playing for Ligue 1 side Nice however, has led to a bit of a resurgence. In the 2017/18 season, he was Les Aiglons’ top scorer, the joint-fifth in the French top tier, and beating such figures as Kylian Mbappe and Rony Lopes in the overall tally. Balotelli also gained the adoration of the fans, and signalled his appreciation by circling the pitch following his final game.
His surrogate father-figure, and his former manager at both Inter Milan and Manchester City, Roberto Mancini has recently welcomed Balotelli back into the fold following his appointment as the Italian national team coach, and Balotelli returned Mancini’s faith with a goal in Italy’s win over Saudi Arabia in their most recent match.
His former manager Jose Mourinho, describing Mario as ‘good fun’, famously said “I could write a book of 200 pages of my two years at Inter with Mario, but the book would not be a drama- it would be a comedy”. If the Balotelli deal does come into fruition, the one thing that won’t be lacking is entertainment.
Unai Emery has a fairly limited budget at Arsenal, with reports circulating around the £50million mark. As Balotelli is out of contract, a move for the Italian forward wouldn’t see the Arsenal war-chest depleted, and may prove to be an excellent resource alongside the excellent Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, and Danny Welbeck- the latter who was spearheading the attack for United’s famous 6-2 capitulation to their Blue neighbours.
Balotelli will be 28 at the start of next season and should be hitting his prime years as a forward. Whether he does this in the Premier League or elsewhere should become apparent in the coming weeks.
(✍️ @ChloeJBeresford)
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