Mario Balotelli has never really done frustration well, has he? Here are our 20 best Mario moments.
Some are fact, some may well be fiction, but all 20 are stories that will have you chuckling to yourself and remembering how lucky we are he is still in the Premier League.
Mario’s Top 20 Moments: (in no particular order)
- The "bib" saga.
- The Italian's car has been impounded 27 times. Seems absurd yet plausible in equal measures.
- Speaking of car troubles, he reportedly had a £120,000 Audi imported only to write it off within a week.
- Speaking of even more car troubles, he has coughed up more than £10,000 in parking fines.
- In one of his flash cars, he drove into a women's prison because he wanted to "look around".
- £300,000 fine for throwing darts at the youth team.
- Won £25,000 in a casino and promptly gave £1,000 to a tramp outside the casino.
- Threw tomatoes at a Serie A manager.
- Sent to the shops by his mother to buy essentials for the house, came back with a giant trampoline, a Vespa and a Scalectrix.
- Has been involved in fights at training with Kompany, Boateng, Tevez and Richards.
- Went on TV wearing an AC Milan shirt with his name on the back while playing for Inter.
- After the cup final on live TV, he says: " I have been sh*t this season, am I allowed say sh*t on TV?
- Was stopped by police going around his hometown of Hulme with £25,000 cash in the passenger seat. When asked why, he replied: "Because I'm rich".
- Adopted a stray cat that kept on turing up at the Manchester City training ground.
- Had to be physically hauled away by Javier Zanetti for refusing to let Samuel Eto'o take a penalty that he had earned.
- Brought his iPad on to the bench for Italy's international against the Faroe Islands because he wanted to play games on it.
- Had his friend approach girls in a nightclub and say: "Balotelli will see you now."
- Became the face of a firework safety campaign a few days after setting his house on fire from letting off fireworks indoors.
- Handed out £50 notes to strangers when out shopping in Manchester.
- Italy had just brought out a brand new home kit, at the start of the second half for their first match wearing the new kit, Balotelli came out in the old kit, claiming he didn't like the new one. As you do.
As we said there were many stories we had to leave out to keep it to 20.
Mario Balotelli, talented footballer, extreme entertainer.
