Whether you love or loathe him, life is never dull with Mario Balotelli. Still only 34, the combustible Italian is still playing, now in Turkey with Adana Demirspor. In England, he is best remembered for his chaotic spell with Manchester City, where he had a hand in their dramatic Premier League title triumph in 2011/12.
There were more moments of controversy though and he was once fined two weeks’ wages by City for his poor disciplinary record. He also got into spats with teammates, sometimes even during matches. Off the pitch, firefighters were once called to his Cheshire pad, where fireworks had been set off with a curtain being set alight.
When he left City in 2013 to return to Milan – with AC rather than former club Inter – it was assumed his time in English football was up. Yet in August 2014, Balotelli was back in the Premier League when Liverpool, then managed by Brendan Rodgers, signed him to replace another controversial player, Luis Suarez, who had left for Barcelona. The move didn’t work out there as he scored just four goals in his one full season at Anfield before a loan move back to AC Milan.
When he returned to Merseyside in the summer of 2016, Jurgen Klopp was in charge and the relationship between manager and player was short and sharp. According to Balotelli, the pair had just one conversation before he was on the move again. He told Sky Italia in 2016: “Klopp doesn't know me.
I spoke to him once, he told me to go somewhere else, work hard and the.