Totally Extra: Why always him? The Mario Balotelli story

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2:37The Athletic FC.

2:46Totally Football Show Extra in our new Extra Show thrillers today freed from the tyranny of topicality we tackle anything that tickles us there'll be trivia, there'll be throwbacks there'll be other things too it's podcast Extra Time in this Totally Football Show

3:08Unbelievable, unbelievable this.

3:38James Horncastle. Hello. This pod is very much the era's tour of Totally Now, in terms of its nostalgia. It's going back. I mean, it might be. It's largely a blank canvas, James, which you always like to see at the start of a podcast, don't you? What the f*** are we going to talk about? I think, broadly speaking, when these come on a Saturday morning, which is the default mode, there will be a bit of nostalgia. there'll be a chance for us bit of Saturday Kitchen bit of Kabaddi maybe so Transworld Sport there will be other weeks when there's Champions League the only thing I used to watch on Saturday mornings sorry Dan can I interrupt you in my house it was you watch Transworld Sport telly off get on with your day or the sumo don't forget the sumo anyway I was going to say some stuff but yeah pretty much this show is here listen to whatever you want to do with it let us know if there's anything you'd like us to address in the weeks to come.

4:40But the notion is, as I said in the intro, that we don't have to talk about a match that's just happened. We can spread our wings. We can indulge ourselves. I mean, here's a question, for example, from Kahir, who says, James, Cotswold restaurant recommendations. I'm going away with my girlfriend, who is a vegetarian. James, you've spent quite a bit of time in Cotswolds recently. Did you go to a lunch? I'm not JD Vance.

5:08I haven't been to the Cotswolds in a few years But I did spend a lot of time The in-laws were based in the Cotswolds for quite some time That was quite recently, wasn't it? Well, no They moved to the North Yorkshire Dales Oh, from the Cotswolds And then they're now in Northumberland I thought you went down there for like Christmas Oh yeah, I would do that But not this Christmas Not this Christmas Or last Christmas Okay amongst any of that did you go to any nice vegetarian restaurants vegetarian yeah there's not many vegetarian restaurants around there in the gods words listen if you run there of course yeah and that's you got the hell out of that hell hole yeah we didn't not enough vegetarian restaurants yeah we were like we've got to get out not enough free speech is what J.D.

5:54Vance would say yeah I mean I was with the in-laws and the in-laws would just cook roasts okay Or take us to Dalesford. Morning, noon, and night. Dalesford, the Bamford family farm shop, which, yeah, it's not really a farm shop, is it? Is it not? Well, no, it's like calling Fortman Mason a corner shop. Right. Patrick Bamford? Yeah. The same? Yeah. Of JCB as well, wealth. Yeah. Or, like, now, toiletries. Okay. You're not aware of the Bamford dynasty? I wasn't. Okay. One of the many things in the course of today's show that will catch me completely by surprise. If you, listener, know of a good vegetarian restaurant, get in touch and we can let Cahir know.

6:46I'm not sure when the trip is planned for. What was the best meal you had this summer, Charlie? Wow, that's a tough question. I was actually going to ask James, but he'd been banging on for a bit, so I went to you. Well, in the Italian theme that we'll get onto, there is a very nice sausage chili pasta that I do. Oh, yeah. And we did that. That was lovely. But it might just be recent. That was like a week ago. Right. I love that you've nominated your own creation. Oh, you made that? Yeah. I thought it was one that we'd made. Or just, you mean generally. But I'll stick with that. No, no. You could totally have that.

7:19It is Saturday Kitchen. Yeah. No, okay. So I'm winning, correct? It's a River Cafe recipe. It's really good. So is it the one with the cream or the shorter one? It has cream in it. It's the one that essentially takes you about two hours if you're going to do it properly. I do like that recipe a lot. So one summer, I took a road trip with the guy who used to run Neverland for Michael Jackson. What?

7:44James, by the way, has never seen the documentary. true um i feel it would this bit of my my recollection of this otherwise very pleasant road trip to was this road trip pre or post the documentary oh very much this would be i think probably actually just after lockdown about 2020 oh wow and we drove down a bunch of us in a minivan to a an italian restaurant in uh sarasota in florida okay where this quite extraordinary very, it was very Italo-American. It was very much kind of wise guy, good filler vibe in there, very bright, very brash restaurant. But in the course of this tasting menu, at the wrong end of it for me, who'd kind of gone a bit heavy on some of the early courses, they brought out this sausage pasta, which was a truly kind of Chief Brody hearing of the shark on Amity Beach moment for me.

8:45and I've tried to recreate it since and that River Cafe from the Blue River Cafe recipe book is the closest I've come it's very good it is really good yeah the one you had in Sarasota had cream in it as well I think so but you know I didn't pay enough attention I think it did yeah it definitely did definitely had cream in it Italians and cream and pasta I mean what? they're not big on it do you think? I mean Alfredo Yeah, but Alfredo, like, I've been to the original... In Rome. Alfredo restaurant. On Piaccio Augusto Imperatore, no? It's near the Arapacis, isn't it? Yeah, and, eh. But, you know, cream is usually considered, like, an addition of cream, be it, like, in a carbonara.

9:33Right. You don't do that. You don't do that. That is a lot, yeah. I see that. And generally, you know, you create... You create the... I can't believe we're going in this direction. Here in Italy, we have a thing. How much more do we have to fill? No, but you kind of create an emulsion by usually using the water from the pasta water. And whatever things have kind of leaked out of whatever you're making, you don't need cream. But if you're going to make, for example, a smoked salmon pasta. Okay. Could I use, you see, I would use mascarpone for that. Uh-huh. With a puree, with a tomato puree. This is my smoked salmon pasta.

10:15recipe get some spring onions chop them up fry them in in uh oil okay throw in a bit of sake or vodka okay yes typically in the rum but yeah yeah but i use sake for it i like that then the puree let that cook for a bit do your pasta add some mascarpone so that it mixes in and gets nice and pink and then chuck everything in together with the salmon on top and then let that kind of cook in the heat of the pasta. I would put a little bit of dill and pepper on that, but you're free not to. And you've got to say, Duncan, kids love it. Kids go mad. Kids go mad. Those Neverland kids, they love it. I call it my Jesus pasta.

11:05What's the puree, by the way? Tomato puree. Ah, tomato puree. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, I should have said tomato puree. Yeah, but it's a winner. Can I ask how you got to know this Neverland person?

11:20Well, no, okay. So he's a lovely bloke. That's not the only thing on his Palmares, as it were. He also did a lot of kind of tour security and logistics. So that, I think, was in terms of the kind of grandness of his title. Running Neverland for Michael was pretty much the high point. But post that, I imagine he experienced some work difficulties after all the business. But he would then run kind of tours or do tour logistics for people like Madonna, that kind of thing. Things had tailed off for him sufficiently that by 2020, thanks so much, that he was actually kind of driving transportation and providing transportation for those of us on World's Strongest Man when we did that in Bradenton, Florida.

12:14And he pitched up, I think, at World's Strongest Man in a series of American locales, Los Angeles, and I think maybe made it across to Myrtle Beach, North Carolina, or South Carolina, in the Carolinas. Anyway, Jimmy, lovely chat. Lovely chat. And he took us to this great restaurant. You still in touch? Not so much, but that's just kind of, you know, that's the business, isn't it? You know, you come, you go. Anyway, thanks, Cahir, for that question about Coxworld restaurant recommendations. Crikey, we better get on to what we'd actually had down as our topic today. I thought we might need a bit of preamble chat, so I'd ask Duncan to prepare a quiz question.

12:58Duncan, did you ever do that? I did, yes. I delved deep into my archive of hope, as I call it. We could have a little quiz question now and then keep the answer back to the end. Yeah. That's right, listener. So the Premier League starts this weekend. Does it? It started last night, in fact. What? If you listen to this on Saturday. Ah, yes. Liverpool 1. Yeah, 3-1. Fair play. Boy, who's now hostage to fortune, Mr Horncastle? Well. no English managers ever won the Premier League it's a sad fact Howard Wilkinson was the last Englishman to lead a team to the title as you may well remember who was the last English manager to even take a team Premier League team into the top three at the end of the season this is the question for today it's a good one isn't it we're not going to give an answer and then we'll loop back at the end I've got one in my head.

13:57I have as well. Yeah. OK, cool. Yeah, that's good. All right. I look forward to finding that one out. Before that, though, I'm going to open up this dusty old almanac. Revisit some far-off footballing times of yore. This is going to be, I think, what we're doing most weeks on the show. So if there's anything you're feeling nostalgic about, listen, do let us know. but this week in football history let's see what there is on offer This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson part of the Athletic FC Podcast Network

14:37You wanted out of control Charlie we can't clear the rights to it but this week in football history Nico Cranchar Harry Reddap's favourite player was born 41 years ago depending on what year you're listening to this. As you know, Harry Reddap signed Crenshaw at three different clubs, Portsmouth, Spurs and QPR. That must be a record, no? It's not. I think he had others. No. But he was the archetypal terrific player, wasn't he? Yeah. No, there is a player who signed for the same manager at five different clubs. Do you know who that is? Goalkeeper Paddy Kenny. Oh, for Neil Warnock? Yes. Yeah. There you go.

15:21Also this week in history anyway, football history, Premier League kicked off in 1992. Some scorelines that weekend, Chelsea 1, Oldham 1. Madness. We had a totally gold out last week on that whole season, talking about stuff like Norwich finishing third with negative goal difference. The fact that you had Sheffield United in there, QPR, all sorts of other examples. Arsenal, who'd been top scorers the previous season and were a lower scoring team in the league. that first Premier League campaign. 2-0 up on the opening day and lost 4-2. Rare dangerous lead scene. Is that to Norwich? Yeah. Norwich, you had started off then with a goal difference of plus two, but ended up with minus what?

16:04Three. Four even. Really? And finishing third. Incredible. With an English manager in the top three, Walker. That was where my mind went to first of all. Great track. Was that it? Now I'm just wondering, is there one since then? There must have been. Duncan says oh Roy Evans has done it we'll find out at the end we'll find out at the end also this week in history in 2020 this was the week that the Champions League quarter finals happened how f***ed up is that that was mad then on Canon that whole month like one off Champions League games in August it just so this was because of lockdown what was that ask your parents ask your parents interestingly Interestingly, you mentioned 1993, and as I detailed in my why I joined the Athletic, I persuaded my mum and dad to leave me in a locked car all afternoon to listen to Sport on 2, on Radio 2, to listen to the first ever day of the Premier League unfold.

17:02Little did I know, chillingly, in 2020, that we'd all be locked inside. I was going to say, chillingly, that you did the same with your children. They've never been out. Anyway, the season had paused for three months, blah, blah, blah, blah. and as a result they kind of had to start everything late they made the Champions League effectively like an international tournament at a neutral foreign venue with barely any spectators watching, I'm so glad they're not pulling stunts like that these days ha ha, come on that lockdown season by the way when football did start again with strange paintings and virtual crowds and stuff like that, sourdough sourdough It's just people were making sourdough.

17:50Banana bread as well. Banana bread, classically, but the whole cast of the world moves straight on to sourdough. But there were some crazy scorelines, is what I was leaning to. You had Man United 1, Spurs 6 and Aston Villa 7, Liverpool 2, both on the same day. How mad was that? That was mad. That was technically the following season, wasn't it? Oh, fair. But yes, it was all in that 2020 post-lockdown. Right. So the following season, again, crowds weren't fully back. Yeah, the following season was the main lockdown season. That's the main COVID season. Because there weren't any matches with full crowds.

18:28No, Liverpool won the season before. They sort of completed it in front of no one. But the following season is the only time in top-flight history where there's been more away wins than home wins. And was that due to... Yes. Yes, it was. Probably was. Also this week in 1990 on the 12th of August in Palermo, Italy, Mario Balotelli was born. Whatever happened to him?

19:13The NFL is building a global game, and Accenture is helping make that vision a reality by striking the right balance between what makes the NFL beloved in America and tapping into the passions and preferences that make each market unique. Accenture, the official business and technology consulting partner of the NFL. Learn more at Accenture.com slash NFL. You're probably multitasking right now, right? Commuting, working out, crossing things off your list. Worth asking when check-in on yourself landed on it. Grow makes the booking part fast. The rest is between you and a therapist who actually gets it.

19:52Grow connects you with thousands of high-quality, licensed therapists across the U.S., offering both virtual and in-person sessions, nights and weekends. There are no subscriptions, no long-term commitments. You just pay per session. Grow helps you find therapy on your time. The therapist you want takes your insurance on Grow. Grow accepts over 125 insurance plans. Sessions average$21 with insurance and some pay as little as$0 depending on their plan. Visit growtherapy.com slash start now today to get started. That's growtherapy.com slash start now. growtherapy.com slash start now. Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan.

20:41This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. The Athletic is the only place you can read articles by Daniel Taylor, Amy Lawrence, Phil Hay, James Pearce, Oli Kay and the very best football writers around. I could write a book of 200 pages of my two years in Inter with Mario, but the book would be not a drama. The book would be a comedy. Lovely ball for Milner. And it's come to Bagatani! Why always me? The noisy neighbours get the breakthrough in the Manchester derby. Fireworks from Balotelli as usual. What's he doing with that there? He can't even get his bib on there, eh?

21:27I think I'm going to change his name to Mario Bibatelli. It's through specialty ,대 final gogle from Daniel Magalair... Balla for the second goal and Ballotelli! Ballotelli!!! Mario, Mario! Mario, Mario! The first goal of Mario in the World! On the sätt, Ballotelli was played by the end of the portrait Jakob Monagel. Oh man, are you kidding? Mario Ballotelli... ...and he's getting boots for this. You know, all the people that don't like us, they're just too shut up and watch us. That's it. Ballotelli could start a fight in an empty house, but it was a full house. He tried to start a fight in here.

22:03I'm not quite sure what went out. Oh, and Balotelli with the spectacular finish. You haven't spoken much. No. In public. People are supposed to speak about me, but I never speak with people. So people don't know what you're like? No. Silva, the Spaniard, and here's Tevez. Balotelli! It's his first Premier League goal! As he confronted Balotelli, the pair then scuffled. They pulled each other's clothes. They pushed each other in what was a pretty ugly spap. I said to him, go inside, leave the pitch. I said no and I took his shirt and pushed him out of the pitch. This is what really happened. Nothing special.

22:45No fight, this is not true.

22:53And more trouble for one of the most controversial sportsmen in the world, Mario Balotelli for all the goals, for all the talent. There continues to be baggage and lots of trouble. Yeah, but if I have to explain to you my character, we're going to stay here for two days. The T-shirt says it all.

23:14Yeah, happy birthday last Tuesday to Mario Balotelli. Turn 35. Super Mario. It hasn't retired yet. Recently expressed his desire, in fact, to sign for Real Madrid, which would be crazy but still probably far from the craziest thing that he's ever done in his incredible career that saw him win a treble sort of at inter win the premier league with man's city become all too briefly one of the best strikers in the world and without doubt the most talked about uh we're going to do some mario balatelli talk now the first thing i think to say is that amongst all the fireworks, the why was me, the Lamborghini with the trunk of cash for the homeless, people maybe forget a little bit what an incredible player Balotelli was, James.

24:05Yeah, I think when you look at the time he came through at Inter, obviously that team would go on to win the treble with him in it. Difficult team to break into, considering the amount of talent that they had. And also it was a time when Serie A was the twilight of the era, which you're so synonymous with, James, in terms of they were still great players. He would go up against the likes of Francesco Totti, who famously got sent off for kicking seven bells out of Mario and another kind of all-time great. So to establish himself in the way that he did. At the age of 17 as well. And, you know, be promoted by Roberto Mancini, this similarly, you know, I think more so in Mancini's case, a kind of irascible kind of enfant terrible of Italian football in the 80s and 90s.

25:04But boy, can Roberto spot a player. Indeed. Mancini, who said of Balotelli around that time, if he's not one of the best players in the world, it will be his fault because he has everything. He also said, I don't speak with him every day, otherwise I would need a psychologist. But he did have an incredible start, 17 years of age, breaking into the team, scoring two goals against Juve in the Coppa Italia quarterfinals, taking Inter through to the semis, winning the Golden Boy Award for the best young player in Europe in 2010. No, because I was just going to say, I'd sort of forgotten that he was, I mean, he played 40 games in that trouble-winning season.

25:43In my mind, he'd been kind of more peripheral to that. No, the treble winning season, I thought he only made three appearances. No, he played regularly. Yeah. I mean, he wasn't always starting. He would come on. He was like a... It was a rotational piece because ultimately they had Diego Milito and they had Samuel Eto 'o. And in the second half of that season, they had Goran Pandev. And obviously it was Milito who scored in the final. So he's kind of remembered as being the guy. And Mario, I mean, Mario was a protagonist in that season for, you know, sort of slightly fun reasons, as is the case always with Mario.

26:19There is the famous Jose Mourinho, Pedro Pinto story about the Ruben Kazan, the Ruben Kazan sort of halftime. Mario, come on, calm down. He's picked up a yellow card. Jose says, I couldn't substitute him because all my strikers were injured. No Melito, no Eto. Mario was the only one. He gets a yellow card a minute, 42. So I go to the dressing room at halftime. I spend 14 minutes of the 15 speaking only to Mario. Mario, I cannot change you. I cannot make a change. I don't have a striker on the bench. Don't touch anybody. Play only with the ball. When we lose the ball, no reaction. If the referee makes a mistake, no reaction.

26:56Mario, please. the way Jose tells this is like after he's finished his dressing room talk with Mario, the players go out and then Jose follows them but as Jose walks out, Mario's coming back in which wasn't the case because he was sent off after an hour it took 15 minutes after play restarted for him too and then the thing that did for him at Inter was semi-final of the Champions League second leg against Barcelona, he comes on and then he gets taken off. And as he gets taken off, he basically takes off his intershirt and tosses it to the ground. And there's a confrontation afterwards with Marco Materazzi, who remains a friend.

27:42But, you know, I seem to remember Mario in the weeks after that, you know, would like show up. I think he did an interview with Gazeta where, again, he was sort of quite mischievous rather than provocative in making clear that he grew up an AC Milan fan. Right. I think it was Strischer, the kind of satirical show, that did a piece with him wearing the red and black while still an interplayer. Because he would show up at training with Milan's socks on. Right. And Matarazzi would basically get the scissors and sort of cut them up and stuff like that. But that was the end for him at Inter. And he subsequently said, look, I wouldn't do that again.

28:29But it obviously paved the way for Mancini to take him to Man City. He was a class apart in so many ways, particularly penalties, where he had that incredible record of 21 penalties without a single failure to convert. He's still the youngest player to score two penalties in a Premier League game. Is that right? Do you know who the first goalkeeper to actually save a Mario Balotelli penalty was? I think Pepe Reina. Yeah, Napoli. God, the recess of my brain. I do remember when he came, it being this incredibly exciting, because that was when City were signing a lot of players, obviously, you know, the early days of the takeover.

29:11But he was the name that jumped out at you because you were just so curious to see. you know because Mancini was always yeah he's the guy who can get a tune out of him and there was yeah it was such a curiosity and I mean the first season took a little bit of time but he was a pretty important player when they won the league I mean absolutely again it gets a little bit buried under all the bants because in those years in Mancini he did put together an absolutely extraordinary series of stories and if you think of the the crazy gangs, the Gazas, I don't know who the modern equivalent would be, but no one could really match the sheer output of bands of police.

29:52The tabloids. The sheer output of the tabloids. Because, I mean, Mario would say that some of these apocryphal stories are not true. All right, well, let's check through them. We've got a bunch sent in by listeners. Many thanks, listeners. Adam mentions his complete disregard for parking tickets. I don't think it's anything too extraordinarily good for him. Nick, being a professional footballer with an allergy to a certain type of grass. This relates to the time he came off against a German side. Was it? I can't remember if it was Bayern. But his face was swollen. Not sure. Was that apocryphal, that one, that it was a grass allergy?

30:23No, but I mean, can you blame him for that? I mean, that's kind of out of his control, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. Some allergy. I think because it didn't happen around the same time as the bib thing. And then it became this sort of. So you had the time when he got into the wrestling match with the bib and the bib won. Yeah, yeah. Okay, it was Dina Mokiev, the swollen face. The fireworks. That one happened. Yeah, but he was not the person who let the fireworks off. Oh, really? It happened in his house. In his bath? Yeah, in his bath. I mean, safety first. It's more for the fireworks in your own house.

30:54If 999 with Michael Burke talking. Right, yes. It did catch fire, the house, I think, to some extent. And he himself then acted as a firework safety advocate for, I think, a week or two later. And wasn't that on the eve of that Manchester, the YWays? It was me, Manchester, Derby. It was kind of incredible how these stories all played out and seemed to interlink. I mean, it was the end of a cycle of, I mean, even the T-shirts. Yes, I was thinking that. Making your own T-shirts. And they got banned, didn't they? Yeah, I was thinking that because I watched all his Premier League goals and he does it quite often.

31:29Obviously, that's the most famous one. And I thought that. What are the ones that he had? There was one for either his mother or his girlfriend at the time saying, I love you, in Italian. And then a couple of others that were... Did they ban it when it was Berbatov with the keep calm and... That is the absolute all-time love. They should have shut down the league when they... Keep calm and pass me the ball. To see Dimitar sink to such levels. To a stocking filler T-shirt. Charlie, when you watch back Balotelli's goals for Man City and one assist, I'm guessing. Yes, yeah. Which were your favourites?

32:08Which ones should we celebrate? Well, the one that I love and is just so symptomatic of him, because, yes, you can say a lot of the stories are apocryphal, and of course that's true, but even on the pitch he did some crazy things. The one where the shouldered in one from a yard out into Norwich is just all, that was what he was about. Also, a very useful goal when you get people now complaining about VAR, saying, you can't be offside by a shoulder. It's like, can you score with a shoulder, Mario? So we have him to thank. He is, I think, the ultimate Thunderbastard player. OK. Because he could really twat it.

32:43I mean, that Germany goal is an unbelievable hit. It's a crazy hit the way he does that. It's a one in a million, really, to connect with it like he does. But in many ways, he's the last of a long era of maverick players where they would just smash the ball as hard they can, set off fireworks in their house. And at the time, he was criticised by lots of people. But a lot of those people that criticised him at the time and now people that go on podcasts and talk about the good old days and why are modern players so professional and you don't get players that do X, Y, Z anymore. So be careful what you wish for.

33:15And also, he is the complete anti-XG player because people would be like, Mario, the percentage of you scoring from that distance, just don't do it. And he would still do it. I remember one of his first goals when he went to AC Milan. Unbelievable kind of strike from, must be like 35 yards out. Is that from the right side? Yes. Yeah, yeah. Just like, again, very few people could do that. Turned off the tracking computer and just went for it. Did he celebrate it? No, he didn't celebrate that one. Well, he had that famous quote, why should I celebrate? It's my job. Does a postman celebrate delivering letters?

33:58Which for someone so unserious is very Roy Keane. Roy Keane says exactly the same thing and yet you know in terms of level of professionalism and standards I would say there's maybe quite quite a difference between Keane and Balotelli however on that they agree When watching the goals as well you mentioned about the penalties and one that I think kind of again crystallised some of his elements against Spurs in January 2012 and he should have been sent off earlier in the game he stamps on Scott Parker and he got a retrospective four game ban I think for it but is still on the pitch City get a penalty in the last minute, and again, they were 2-0 up in, it's 2-2, and he sticks away the penalty completely nervously, and you think that they won the league on goal difference that season.

34:41And that was just hit, but again, it was one of those games, it was like, I think Gareth Bale scored an unbelievable goal, but it was just the Balotelli show, you know, and kind of the recklessness, the sort of thing we were talking about before, with Mourinho and getting sent off, but then also just the ice cool, like, yeah, last minute penalty, I don't give a s***, going to put it in the corner. We've also just come to the end of pre-season and I think we can agree that he showed pre-season the right levels of respect. Was it LA Galaxy? Yeah, the back-heel. Yeah, and he was sort of not quite one-on-one with the keeper, but in on goal with a fairly presentable tuck at home.

35:14One of my favourite details about that is that the guy who replaces him is James Milner and it's just the ultimate opposite of being like, get the least professional guy on for the ultimate pro and Milner's there just like warming up really diligently. Because he subbed off straight after missing that. Yeah, Mancini's furious. He takes him off. He does a sort of pirouette back hill that just goes four or five yards wide. Is it Edin Dzeko's near him? Yeah, Edin Dzeko's up in arms. What are you doing? Then Milner trots on to replace it. Let's take a look and see how the reaction is at the bench.

35:42Look at Mancini. Boy, this is problematic here. Very interesting stuff here. Good on Roberto Mancini. So that did happen. The time when shortly after moving to Manchester, he got stopped by the police after a bit of a car incident. and they asked him why he was carrying£5 ,000 worth of cash and he answered, because I am rich. That is very Mario. That's true. Sadly, my limited research suggests that the story about him going around and handing out cash to homeless people was an urban myth, as was one of the other favourite stories, him signing autographs, discovering that a kid was taking time off school because he was getting bullied and visiting the school to sort the bullies out and talk to the teachers and put them straight as well.

36:28Apparently it didn't happen. That's a real disappointment. Almost take that out. I don't want to break anyone. Yeah, that'll shatter some. Yeah. Well, he did. He became sort of this weird thing of fantasy, didn't he? Because it was like he clearly was flawed in lots of ways, but he had lots of redeeming features. And then we kind of exaggerated both of those extremes. Threw darts at a youth player as a prank. No one was hurt. Yeah, all of that. Who hasn't done that? Who hasn't brought a pig into the country and had to register themselves as a pig breeder in order to get them past customs? The piglet super, of course.

37:08Yeah. But the goals, and crucial goals, in that title-winning campaign for Man City in the 6-1 against Manchester United at Old Trafford that season. He scored the opening two goals, got Johnny Evans sent off and then busted out that T-shirt, which is whatever you might say about t-shirts that's why always me you could spend up a gas breaking down the that's genius yeah he's just a complete original i would say even though people will try and characterize him uh or pigeonhole him with other mavericks and that sort of thing he is an original and if you look at again the kind of moments he is involved in they are they're not just all the things that you've rattled off in terms of stuff that would be in the Daily Mail or the tabloid, there are genuinely big football moments which are in contention to be in sort of top 10 Premier League years kind of stuff, you know, be it the why always me Martin Tali does not get to shout Aguero without Mario Balotelli holding the ball up What's the word you hear before?

38:16Aguero Balotelli Yeah yeah yeah and meanwhile with Italy he's in not always easiest of circumstances proving absolutely instrumental decisive I'm not sure since he stopped playing for them we've barely seen Italy I mean they've really scored in Italy's last World Cup win didn't he against England England he got the winner yeah and yeah that tournament was a reminder of just how quickly things can change because all of a sudden he became scapegoated for them going out when they were playing Uruguay in Recife or Sao Paulo. I can't remember where it was. And he got taken off at halftime. And afterwards, the kind of senior players, in very thinly veiled terms, kind of blamed him.

39:06And he barely played for the national team again because there was this perception that he had lost the trust of those senior players, even though, and I think this is true of like, as much as people like to present him as this bad boy, I don't think you'll find a teammate or a coach who didn't like Mario Ballet-Ton. They all like him. He just presented certain challenges because sometimes he was being so mischievous, so funny, or not always giving the impression he was serious. There were times when he would be on the pitch and you would think, particularly in this era where it's like the striker's got to be the first defender, got to press, got to lead, for example, from the front.

39:49He wouldn't do that. He was there to score goals. And, you know, I think that was an element of frustration with him rather than resentment towards him. Yeah, I think that's a really good point because, like, you think about, like, historical mavericks and who are sort of lionised, but he's far more harmless than lots of them. You know, he's not going out and harming people or really harming his teammates. He's doing sort of often quite baffling. Unless he rents out properties in Cheshire. Sure, but, you know, there will be fireworks from time to time. You know that. But, you know, it's largely sort of quite silly.

40:27Schoolboy stuff. Yeah, kind of baffling, but it's kind of things that are only really often harming himself more than anyone around him. And certainly, you know, he's not going around doing stupid things to his opponents. Like, it's largely... It is largely sort of harmless hijinks. And I think that's why he was very endearing to a lot of people. So the Man City title-winning campaign, he was huge in that. Euro 2012 for Italy, James. Yeah, I would say so that period of like, obviously when City win the league and then he has another half-season with them and then he goes to play for AC Milan. And that goes pretty well as well.

41:05Although now, he did a great interview on the Athletic actually for Neda Manoa, who says he took about five weeks to track him down and Mario said, oh yeah, I never checked my phone, which you kind of believe is true. Anyway, in there he says that his regret is leaving Man City, that he should have stayed there and basically played with Aguero and would have won at least one Ballon d 'Or. But if... No, but I mean that's... No, no, no. I mean, look, I mean, he... When he moved to AC Milan in the second half of what would be his third season, I think, at City. He is incredible. Like, I think that season he ends with 20 goals in all competitions for club and country.

41:48So he joins in the January window, no? Yeah. And he gets 12 goals in 13 appearances and Milan a third. Yeah. And, you know, people will say, oh, well, there'll be quite a few penalties amongst them. But he did exactly what an AC Milan number nine they needed, really. You know, he was there with Allegri. there was the Mohawk trio, the Cresta, you know, with Stephen Alshawari and M. Bai Niang. What a great trident that was. Sustainable. But obviously, I think another character, key character in all this was his agent, Mino Ryla. Right. Because Mino would, I mean, he would do this with most of his clients, most famously Zlatan.

42:31He'd talk them up. You know, he would always say, you know, I've got the next Ballon d 'Or winner in my stable. And Mino talked a good game. Zlatan talked a good game. And I think there was an element that Mario doesn't lack confidence, but was kind of told or presented as this guy who could win the Ballon d 'Or when at that stage you're full in kind of Messi-Ronaldo. It's kind of delusion, really. It's not on his part, but again, in terms of the marketing and hype that is around players all the time that can end up being taken as, oh, that's what they think, that's what they say, I think. It's cute.

43:11I mean, I always remember Zlatan saying, I get out of bed and I say, I'm the best player in the world. And people were like, well, that's arrogance. And reality is like, yeah, probably there is an element of arrogance to it, but he needed to say that to himself in order to believe it and make it happen. And I think there was an element of that psychology if not passed on from him to Mario then certainly from Mino saying look you have to do this he was manifesting before and also as a black kid in Italy and then breaking through because he received abuse I mean all over but certainly in his time at Italy and then at various other clubs potentially there were overtones of that I always got the sense that he was hinting it a little bit that he was never truly welcomed with the Uzzuri for that reason as well.

44:02Maybe that's unfair. Well, I think with his teammates, he was welcomed. I think a lot of those senior players who called him out for professionalism, if you like, all still liked him. I think the issue, yeah, I think Mario is one of the most important figures in Italian life for the last 15, 20 years outside of football, kind of culturally, societally. and he was a kid born to immigrants from Ghana in Palermo, given up for adoption, was raised in Brescia. And so if you close your eyes and you listen to a Balotelli interview or a Roberto Dezerbi interview, you wouldn't tell the difference. They've got the same particular accent from Brescia, very strong.

44:51but you would have certain far-right, alt-right elements in the national team fan base who would sing, you know, there are no black Italians, you are not Italian. When he was in the under-21s, I think they were playing in Rome and there was some downtime and there was him and some teammates, the Atomic Ant, Sebastian Jovinko was with him, one of the great bad nicknames. He's in next week's show. Okay. and a couple of guys just walk past and throw a bunch of bananas at Mario miss him, hit the waiter but you know start basically racially abusing him and there was always a like condemnation of the racism around him and this like can he be accepted by this fan base which has elements of racism to it and then the kind of desire or projection on the media's behalf to be a symbol for something, which was like the way they presented it was this very loaded kind of term like Mario Balotelli and the new Italians.

45:57Time magazine actually had him on the front, on the, you know, their cover boy back in around this time. I think 2012, I think. I think it was around 2012. Yeah, 2013, I think, early 2013. And it was, you know, we have to understand Mario Balotelli to understand the new Italy. Yeah. Yeah, but Mario never wanted that. He didn't want to be a symbol of something. He just wanted to be Mario Balotelli. And yet, all of a sudden, you had media, foreign and domestic, saying these kind of things. Like, you know, Mario Balotelli, you need to be the face of campaigns against racism in Italy. And he's like, I just want to be a normal guy.

46:38A lot of people say that. They don't want to be an advocate necessarily. They don't have an advocate's personality. and they're kind of thrust into this role and aren't necessarily comfortable with it. But I mean, he does, and this is still the case today in Italy, Mario Balotelli was not made a citizen of Italy until he was 18. You have this thing in Italy where if you are born in Italy, but to immigrant parents, you don't get an Italian passport. You have to wait until you're no longer a minor, show proof of residency and all that kind of thing, which is ludicrous when, you know, there are many Americans who've got Italian heritage, who get Italian passports but can't speak Italian, have never stepped foot in Italy.

47:23And there's a guy in Maribel Italia who was born in Palermo, spent his entire life, apart from, you know, periods of where he's been playing in Turkey, France and England, speaks the heaviest accented Brescian that you could ever imagine and yet, you know, would not get a passport. Is that still the law now? That's still the law now, yeah. Right, I mean, until he did when he was 18, which was the first time he could. It wasn't like they were holding one back. He never played for Italy at under-18, under-17, under-16 level because he couldn't. Wow. So, you know, I mean, yeah, he has occasionally spoken up for people, basically, who are, you know, in his circumstances born to immigrant parents, but brought up in Italy, raised as Italian, to be given a passport.

48:11and I think that's fair. Fair enough. I was just saying on that, Jim, but on that Euro 2012 game as well, I mean, it's forgotten. Obviously, that goal, the second goal he scores is the famous one, but he scores the first as well and that Germany team were really, really good. I mean, they went on to win the World Cup two years later. They were very much fancied to win that game. I mean, it was an incredible performance that he produced. I think that's the most significant, most, dare I say, I don't like using this, most iconic Italian performance in a major tournament of the last 15 years. Is that the one where he takes your shirt off?

48:45The Hulk performance. Yeah, it was incredible. Because even when Italy won the Euros in COVID, there are some big Chiellini moments. There's the Saka moments, there's the Jordi Alba moments. But in terms of Italian prowess and a genuine wow moment rather than a cheeky moment, Chiellini is genuinely like, wow, that is a real statement performance by an Italian on a European world stage. Right.

49:27I don't think anyone's come close to that. Pirlo's Penenka on Joe Hart. So that was the round before. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, that was quite a moment. Yeah. But that was more hilarious. Yeah, definitely. But I think that still holds, doesn't it? Yeah, I think that's absolutely true. And we haven't seen Italy at a World Cup since Balotelli's days and we certainly haven't seen a player with the exception of Pirlo, contemporary. It's funny you mention Balotelli and Pirlo there because I think they were both early social media kind of meme figures as well, in different ways. But both those players kind of rose to prominence at a time when for the first time people were just relentlessly creating content and it just hit the spot in a way that, you know, Paul Gascoigne, say, in the 90s, would have been a big sensation on social media, but it didn't really...

50:18Sadly, just didn't get enough coverage about that. Yeah, yeah. Scratching around. So Mario, in his piece, I think this is where I saw this with Nedim, says, when I do retire, I'll be happy with the path that I've taken. I could have done more, but in any case, I won everything. which is I mean it's lovely to know that he's not because a lot of people I think look at Balotelli's career and say he could have been this he should have done that why didn't he but if he's happy with what he's done and it's still by almost everybody's standards an incredible career he's had I do wonder though if there is a particular reason why whether it's the evolution of the game the fact that strikers are asked to do different things now why it is that he was so incredible breaking through it into and then at Man City even with everything else that was going on and then when he went to Milan as well after that but gradually from Nice to Marseille, Brescia, Monza.

51:12Liverpool. Liverpool before that yeah which hadn't been happy. But that was kind of the turning point in a way that prompted that decline. Was that okay was that where? I think so I mean he was he was really bad there and he tipped into from being you know this kind of maverick who on his day would be amazing to a bit of a liability really. I mean he scored one Premier league goal that season for them and clearly brendan rogers you know he had his you know he was up in arms a lot of the time about him he just wasn't doing what he needed from him and so had become i don't know he it just felt like his name was in an envelope well yeah exactly but he and bear in mind as well he's replacing luis suarez right um and yeah that was that was such a bad move for him.

51:59Yeah. I think in terms of clubs and what they symbolise in the last 10 or 15 years, Liverpool, perhaps more than any club apart from Barcelona, are considered that team of pressing, you know, relentless kind of geggin-pressing nonsense. Even with Brendan... You just call it running around. Yeah. Even with Brendan, it was, you know, death by football kind of stuff. And Mario's a finisher and And, you know, I think he still had good seasons, like at Nice. He had a good season at Nice. He had a good season at Nice. But every time he'd sign for a club, you'd think, oh, could this be the time when we see that Balletier Magic?

52:41And with each successive club, your hopes would be a little bit less. Genoa, he went to, was that the start of the season? When did he go? No, so he was, I think he was still a free agent, so he could join whenever. and he was signed by Alberto Geladino and then Geladino got the second, Vieira came in and he'd kind of fallen out a little bit with Vieira at Nice and so that was kind of like days are numbered and he only played like 62 minutes. But yeah, you made this point earlier and I think it's worth reinforcing. Like no one gifted anything to Mario Balotelli. You know, as much as people always thought Roberto Mancini indulged him, Mancini wouldn't have thrown him in in that inter-team, which was very, very competitive if he didn't think he was good enough.

53:28And he contributed to winning titles. He contributed to winning a treble. As we've mentioned, he's there at the heart of a couple of the biggest Premier League moments in the history of the Premier League. You know, not as a joker, but as a, you know, Oscar winning supporting actor. And, you know, a couple of incredible turns. And then again with Italy, the projection that, you know, what's missing from Italy? And I sort of wrote about this this week is that Italy have had no problem producing top-class centre-backs ever, really. You know, I mean, even if you look at the kind of, you know, Cannavaro lifting the World Cup 2006, being given the Ballon d 'Or, only centre-back to do it, you know, people thought, okay, that's an end of an era.

54:11Italy no longer competitive, at least at World Cups. But they still had Chiellini, Bonucci, Barzelli. You look more recently, the Inter lads, you know, Bastoni's, you're a chair to piece, they've been Champions League finals. and you know this Giovanni Leone who Liverpool are signing you know is a very good centre-back potentially the issue has been producing your Baggio's your Totti's your Dol Piero's and your Vieris and you know whenever a major tournament comes around usually a Euros because that's the only thing Italy qualify for these days everyone points a finger and says where is the striker and you know Balotelli was that last striker and in terms of that lost generation of great Italian 10s and 9s there was so much invested in it being Mario Balotelli and Antonio Cassano and for whatever reason those two and you know Cassano says this like you know he played 20 % of his potential you know if he played 100 % he would be playing on the moon on his own he was that good and the thing is if you surround yourself with the greats of that era from Italy they all agree with Cassano they're like this guy he went to Real Madrid and Real Madrid don't I mean aside from Thomas Graveson and Flaubert they don't really mess around they can see the talent in Cassano okay and I think that's the thing that's the thing with Balotelli he was seen as he was supposed to be that guy and he was that guy fleetingly but you know I think he's quite right to be content with the career he had.

55:48But also with that, it strikes me, and obviously this is said with retrospect, but you can't, I don't feel like you can say, and maybe this is the point at which things diverge for him, but kind of conventional diligence and willingness to do all the really boring stuff, all the training day after day after day, that is what defines the best players of the modern era. Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, he never really, to me, seemed like someone who had that gene in him necessarily, even right at the start. It's those sorts of qualities beyond the talent which he clearly had that would have turned him from being someone who won everything but his star shined brightly into being someone who had that longevity.

56:27Do you know what I mean? No, absolutely. And if you have that mindset, what difference does that make to the way you play football? Maybe you take that maverick element out. I mean, it's not a new concept. Anyway, there you go. I mean, the fact that we're doing this podcast about his career is testament that he's had a good career. I mean, that season, 2011-12, Grant Holt scored two more goals in the league than Balotelli. I don't think we're doing a Grant Holt retrospective. I may be wrong. Had Grant Holt driven round in a camouflaged Lamborghini with buckets of cash and a Santa suit in the back seat, might he be the subject of today's podcast?

57:05I think that is a thing. We say, you know, people forget. question. And on line two, we have Grant. But it is inescapably part of the Balotelli story, the just legendary disregard for normal behaviour that he had. Yeah, that's kind of what I mean. And I also think, what you said, James, about no one gifted him anything. I mean, surely the exact opposite of that. I mean, he would have had to overcome so much prejudice and to have achieved what he did is kind of incredible. definitely I think for anybody but particularly for him Mario Balotelli then it's going to be interesting to see where he pitches up next I hope he goes to and I don't think they would do this which is really unfortunate because it just shows a lack of romance but Palermo should hire they should take him on you know because his other hometown club he's played for Brescia during the Chilino years City football group you know but maybe City have become a little bit too serious you know in terms of data, control, that sort of thing.

58:08But you want to know who's coach? No, I mean, it's Pipo Inzaghi. It's Pipo Inzaghi. It would be amazing. It would be amazing. And I would love to see that. Also, because Mario, he recently went back to Palermo. Obviously, that was where he was born. And before he was adopted, there was a local woman in Palermo called Angela who was essentially his godmother and would look after him. and he basically wanted to reconnect with her. So he was on social media. I found this really sweet. On social media, he posted a photo of her holding him as a baby and he was like, do you know where Angela is? I want to get back in touch with her.

58:48And so, you know, I mean, just... And they reconnected. I think they did reconnect. I think they did. Let's say they did because it makes a nicer ending for the podcast. Yeah. Yeah, Mario Balotelli.

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1:00:10You're listening to the Totally Flippable Show with James Richardson now with you four times a week. Keep up to date with us on Insta and enjoy us in glorious Technicolor on YouTube at The Totally Show. Anything else we should know, James? Did you ever meet the great man? I was lucky to spend a day with Mario. No way! And it was one of the best days of my career. Why have you only mentioned this now? Because, you know, like, it was Champions League final into Man City. Oh! Oh my goodness, I've forgotten about this. But I'm not going to tell the stories of that day. No, you can't. But... But...

1:00:45So he was basically brought in by what was then still BT Sport? It was BT Sport's last ever Champions League final. Right. Jake's farewell, as it's known. Exactly. Mario saw him off. Mario? No, but like Mario was, you know, that was his first ever broadcasting gig. I think possibly his last. Well, he does podcasting now with his mates, Emiliano Viviano, the goalkeeper, and a few other sort of influences. And he's really good. Oh, yeah? And it's again, it's that kind of classic thing where you just put someone in an environment in which they're comfortable rather than ring up last minute and say, Mario, what are you doing?

1:01:25Can you come on British TV with people, you know, you you're aware of? I mean, it was Rio in Hargreaves, Cesc Fabregas. But it was the first time he's ever had to. And I don't think anyone tutored him on holding a mic, you know, sort of having an earpiece in and producers talking and that sort of thing. But you call this the happiest day of your life. Yeah, because he, no, career. Career, sorry. Career, not life. Career, okay. No, it was just, it was, because he's just so simpatico. You know, he's, stuff happens. I remember getting out of the minibus, and you had to walk to the Atatürk Stadium, because I think there was some talk about Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, coming.

1:02:07So they closed off a road. So we had to walk. And Rio got out, and Rio's got presents. but all of the fans they just went crazy for mario and you know you've been in those situations you've got security around you and for security like mario is just sort of hanging back taking selfies doing autographs and you know he was playing in turkey at the time so granted big deal but it was a reminder of just like uh the aura that he has and um yeah i don't understand how this works for a footballer, but his data seemed to run out on his phone when we were going back to the hotel. And so he asked if he could connect to my hotspot.

1:02:52And so the password on my hotspot, I'm not going to tell you what it is, but it was set by Mario Balotelli. I've never changed it. Of course. I don't think I would change it. It's expected gold.

1:03:05There you go. What a lovely story. Thank you so much, James. Yeah. Yeah. Love. yeah I have a soft spot for Mario okay I think we all do I think we all do and best of luck to him whatever he gets up to next what he says is he's going to finish his career whenever it comes playing alongside his brother Enoch yeah I think he gave an interview the other day he wants to play for another two or three years okay for Real Madrid or Palermo or Palermo I mean that Ballon d 'Or point though Nedim says in the interview that right at the start when he joined City he would often say that to your point about the Ballon d 'Or message was so clearly ingrained in him and he would constantly benchmark himself against Ronaldo and Messi at a time where certainly in his first season he wasn't always even playing for City but he absolutely had that conviction well still time of course Charlie there's still time anyway that was our little reminisce about Super Mario before we finish up though Duncan a little bit of unfinished business Yes.

1:04:09I think you had a quiz question for us. Just remind us of the question. The question was, there's never been an English manager to lead a team to the Premier League title. Who was even the last one to take a team to the top three? So we've mentioned Mike Walker in his first. Who's Welsh. Welsh, right? Of course. Yep. Just ruling him out. And then Roy Evans did it in 98? Before Hulia came in? Did Frank Lampard do it at Chelsea? He did not. No, no. So now Alan Kerbysh got really high, but it wasn't. not that got a big contract well that's different yeah you know no it's Shards was fifth Roy Evans is the penultimate man to do it he did it twice in 95, 96 and 97, 98 ok don't there's one since one since an English manager third in the and it was third I can confirm not second Eddie how they were fourth that season weren't they what three years ago now three seasons ago now is it someone who caretakers nope so it's not like a Michael Carrick it's a real no I don't know it's a proper manager proper manager a great manager I'd say since 90 when was the Harry Redmond 98 98 so someone since 98 yeah big figure not long after 98 Ron no Ron did do it in the first season Villa came second big figure Keegan obviously did it in the mid 90s this is a great question and Frank Clark as we've mentioned there's only one other yeah Frank Clark erm and he's a so he's like a properly I'll narrow it down early 2000s we're talking early 2000s ok so it would be what disgruntled at Sven being the England manager instead of him well who'd have been I'm not sure hmm think who'd have been in like who came to third in 2001 yeah what English manager John Gregory Leeds was it was Irishman David O 'Leary David O 'Leary yeah but it's not Reedy

1:06:13oh so who was coming it kind of been 0-1-0-2 I'll give you the season it was 0-2-0-3 it was 0-2-0-3 look at Charlie's brain yeah okay so United were top then Arsenal oh so Bobby Robson yes correct of course of course yeah there we go very good long time ago war bobby well yeah increasingly so Duncan increasingly so okay there you go thanks Duncan for that thank you Charlie thank you James for that I think nicely fleshed out sausage and cream recipe yeah I think if you take nothing else from today's show listener you can download all the recipes on the app the recipe will be in the show notes or in the Blue River Cafe book which you can buy on Amazon.com you certainly can we'll have another show next week and if there is anything that you would like us to talk about or any questions you've got do send them in Grant Holt very interesting player I've spent time with Grant Holt and he is a very interesting player in a lovely chat.

1:07:34Was it when you were with the guy from Neverland? No, it's a separate story. Okay. Separate story. A wrestling fan and indeed a wrestler. Yeah. Yeah. I see the Grant Holt episode as very much a thing. Like the goalkeeper, Tim V. It was probably the happiest day of my entire career. I think I said one of the happiest. Boy. Speaking of goalkeepers called Tim to link it back to Balotelli. There's a great penalty he scores. Don't lead us back. We've already wrapped up. Tim Krul in goal and Tim Krul known wind-up merchant in Ballotelli scores and just gives him the look of being like yeah, f*** you.

1:08:09That's great. Bingo. Lovely note to finish on. Thank you, Charlie. Thank you, Duncan. Thank you, James. And thank you, producer Lucy. And thank you, listener. Do hope you've enjoyed the show. Catch up with you soon. Be in touch if there's anything you want to say. For now, from all of us here, it's goodbye.

1:08:28You've been listening to the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. For more great podcasts just like this one, including the Athletic FC and our dedicated club podcasts, search for The Athletic on Apple, Spotify and all the usual places. We're also at the Totally Football Show on Insta and at the Totally Show on YouTube. The Totally Football Show is an Athletic Media Company production.

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