Roberto Mancini knows Mario Balotelli very well from their days together at Manchester City, including the Premier League championship in 2011/12. The Italian national coach has never forgotten the “enfant terrible” – and has now even brought him back to the Squadra Azzurra after a long absence.
It is well known that Mario Balotelli has made a few blunders in his football career, both on and especially off the pitch. And even in the recent past, it has not been quiet around the 31-year-old striker.
Balotelli’s engagement with Brescia Calcio was supposed to end just as abruptly as that with second-division club Monza, but it was not to be.
But since 2021, the former Inter, ManCity, Milan and Liverpool professional has been more successful again – in the Turkish top flight for Adana Demirspor. Under former Roma and international Vincenzo Montella, Balotelli has eight goals and several assists in 19 league games, a fact that has not gone unnoticed by his former coach at the Citizens and at Inter Milan, Roberto Mancini.
35-man squad for the big goal
The 57-year-old has spoken about Balotelli on and off in the past, never completely ruling out a possible comeback. And now the time has come: for the first time since September 2018, a 1-1 draw against Poland in the Nations League, the attacker is back in the squad of the Italian selection. More precisely, “Balo” is part of a 35-man squad that has been nominated for a training course from 26 to 28 January. The aim is to lay the foundations ahead of the play-offs in Qatar 2022, which are due to take place in March.
The fact that the striker has been completely without a club for several months is currently being forgotten with his good performance. Now Balotelli can show that he still has a lot of quality. And quality is what the Squadra Azzurra is looking for these days, especially on the offensive: because it already became clear when they won the European Championship in the summer of 2021 that both Ciro Immobile (Lazio Roma) and Andrea Belotti (Turin FC) do not score goals regularly or often enough.
And goals will be needed when they face North Macedonia in just one decisive match on 24 March (20.45). After that, either Portugal or Turkey would be waiting.
