Super-Mario. “Why always me”-Mario. The player’s former Italian national team coach and Balotelli’s boss at City, Roberto Mancini, still doesn’t understand how he could waste his talent. In October, however, Balotelli was back in Serie A, determined to play his way back to the top level in order to get a call-up to Italy’s World Cup squad. A former teammate and coach has put a stop to this plan.
Balotelli was brought back to Serie A in October 2024 by then-Genoa coach Alberto Gilardino. In mid-November, Gilardino was fired.
In came a former Manchester City teammate. Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira took the 2010/11 season at City, when Balotelli was in the squad. There was a reunion in Nice from 2018. Then with Vieira as coach. This didn’t end well, with a blatant altercation between the two strong personalities ending with Vieira stating: “His mentality is not suitable for a team sport like football.”
In November, Vieira came in as Genoa coach. Since then, Balotelli has been given a meagre 34 minutes in the match arena.
Genoa’s sporting director has told Balotelli this will not change.
-I have spoken openly with Mario. He’s training, he’s part of the squad and there are still some transfer markets open – we’ll see what can be done,” Marco Ottolini begins to Il Secolo XIX.
“We could have activated the clause at the end of December, but we didn’t because that’s not our style and we wanted to give each other more time. There are simply players who suit our football style better, the sports director explains.
If you had asked Balotelli in October who gets a place in his “coach from football hell”, Vieira would probably have been one of them. And Vieira came.
