Yet another cracking Mario Balotelli story

Although it is as yet unverified, another story has emerged about Mario Balotelli that perhaps trumps all of the crazy episodes in his life to date.

Madcap striker Balotelli has had some weekend. Just over 24 hours after setting his house ablaze with fireworks, he scored the first two goals in an emphatic 6-1 derby win over bitter rivals Manchester United at Old Trafford yesterday, a result that confirms City’s superiority over their bitter rivals.

The Italian, whose previous escapades include throwing darts at Manchester City youth players, playing with his iPad on the bench and turning up uninvited at a women’s prison, is the talk of the town at the moment and another humorous story about the eccentric Italian has emerged on Twitter today that perhaps trumps everything he has done in the past.

The source of the story is Manchester City fan and Umbro PR worker Chris Dolan (@chrisdolan), who tweeted the following story on his Twitter page earlier today.

“I've just heard a Mario Balotelli story that betters Tesco & the fireworks...OK, so his mum's over from Italy, asks the cleaner if she has everything she needs.

“Cleaner: ‘No, I need all the practical things - iron etc.’

“Mario's mum: ‘Where can we go to buy these things? Write me a list and we'll go and buy it all’ Cleaner: ‘John Lewis.’

“So Mario's ma sends him & his mates to John Lewis with a shopping list in hand...Mario returns to the house 5 hrs later...empty-handed.

“Cleaner: ‘Er, where's the iron, iron-board etc?’

“Then a big John Lewis van arrives...van contains nothing from the shopping list bt (sic) the following 'practical items': - giant trampoline, Scalextric, 2 Vespas, table tennis set'.

The story may well be a figment of Dolan’s imagination and designed to capitalise on Balotelli’s popularity at the moment, but Times’ writer Ben Smith revealed on his Twitter page today that he had heard a story about Balotelli that he called “priceless” and is due to discuss it later this evening, so maybe it is true after all,

“Mario Balotelli - the gift that just keeps giving. You'll know what I'm talking about at 8pm tonight. Priceless #MCFC,” he tweeted.

If any other player was the subject of a story like this, it would probably be immediately dismissed as fiction, but Balotelli? It certainly can't be dismissed.