The Mario Balotelli Conundrum
Humility, modesty, reticence, humbleness. These are words that you can categorically say will never appear in an article about Mario Balotelli (except this one), especially after his rather arrogant showing at the Golden Boy award ceremony.
I have a theory about arrogance, and that is that it should only be deployed in one of two situations; first, as a defence mechanism, if you are, in fact, not very confident about your ability in a given situation, or, second, in a jovial sense when you know you’re the best, and you want to inject a bit of comedy into a given scenario. Jose Mourinho being the master at the latter, and, say, someone like Nicklas Bendtner being adept at the former. Mario Balotelli, however, seems to fall into neither category, and for me, the enigma of ‘Super Mario’ just continues to stupefy.
Having won the award for best young player in Europe, Balotelli proceeded to show why, around the globe, he has failed to make many friends, by stating of the man who finished second, Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere;
“What’s his name? Wil … ? No, I don’t know him, but the next time I play against Arsenal I will keep a close eye on him… Perhaps I can show him the Golden Boy trophy and remind him that I won it.”
And perhaps Jack can remind him of the score at the Eastlands when the two sides met earlier in the season…
He also noted of former winners that;
“There’s only one that is a little stronger than me: Messi. All the others are behind me… I am delighted to receive the award, but who should have won it but me? Two years ago I finished sixth and then fourth in 2009. It was finally my turn. My aim is that this prize will transform itself into the Ballon d’Or. To have won this award is a good omen to achieve that.”
Perhaps this is where his humility comes in. He has admitted that Lionel Messi is better than he is, but even that is tempered by ‘a little stronger’. But when you bear in mind past winners have included Cesc Fabregas, Wayne Rooney and Rafael van der Vaart, his modesty is perhaps stretched to its limit by the admission that Messi is better than him.
After scoring 8 goals in 11 appearances for Manchester City, there is no doubt he is a prodigious talent, and after probably the most productive hat-trick in football history against Aston Villa, in terms of the ratio between effort and final product, Balotelli is on a high. His apparent homesickness has given his plight a more human face, but while he continues to disrespect those in the game, he is going to make few friends.
The only place the 20 year-old can prove his own sense of self-worth is on the pitch, over a sustained period of time, otherwise, for all his talent, sound-bites and searing, arrogant rhetoric, he will become the footballing equivalent of a travelling circus; a nomadic laughing-stock.
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Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool all to win at 15/8!