Mario on the day he was told he’d never play for City again...
MARIO Balotelli has explained how he was told he would never play for City again after his infamous red card against Arsenal in the 2011/12 season.
Balotelli was deemed to have cost City the game at the Emirates Stadium after he was dismissed following two rash challenges on Alex Song and Bacary Sagna – the 1-0 defeat left City eight points adrift of United and manager Roberto Mancini was furious with his striker.
Balotelli managed to complete the ultimate redemption story as he would go on to provide the assist for Sergio Aguero to score the goal that sealed the victory over Queens Park Rangers and the Premier League crown. Speaking to the club’s website, Balotelli relived that extraordinary day in north London.
He explained: “I don’t really remember a lot about before the match but, unfortunately, I remember the match. The tackle on Song was very bad from me.
“I’m not used to tackling like that. Song is a player I know, a friend. I said sorry.
“It was a bad tackle but you cannot touch my friend Yaya [Toure]. Song chipped the ball and I tried to guess where he was going to chip it.
“It was a very bad tackle. It could have been a red card.
“It was a second yellow [for the foul on Bacary Sagna] but my intention wasn’t to make a foul – it was to stop the shot. I went there with too much aggression but it was not my intention to tackle him. He (Mancini) was angry. I remember on the bus, he said: ‘You’ll never play again’.”
Balotelli would of course go on to play many more games for City before leaving for AC Milan in 2013.
Despite his public scolding from Mancini, the forward, who now plays
for Adana Demirspor in Turkey, still holds a lot of respect for his previous boss.
“I was unpredictable on the pitch but that was also my quality,” he added. “I could do almost everything but maybe tactically, that was one of my weaknesses.
“Mancini is good in tactics. The way he prepared the match was to win so it was not a surprise when you won tactically against another team with Mancini as a coach because he was good at it.
“[The relationship we had] was very good. In training on a normal day, he was like one of us. Then on matchday, he became the manager and you have to give everything and respect the game.”