When Italy were unceremoniously dumped out of the 2022 World Cup in qualifying by North Macedonia, an entire nation mourned. Yet few could match the disappointment of Roberto Mancini’s mother.
In the immediate aftermath of the Azzurri’s shock 1-0 defeat, Marianna Puolo made headlines after suggesting her son had made one crucial error.
“We had the match in our hands but the attack wasn’t great,” she told Radiouno. “I would have called up [Mario] Balotelli because he has incredible physical strength and in front of the goal nobody can stop him.”
In truth, it was probably wishful thinking on Puolo’s part. Although Balotelli was called up to join the Azzurri on a three-day training camp back in January, his return to form at Adana Demirspor in Turkey was too little too late to force his way into Mancini’s plans.
Balotelli has shown himself to be the man for the big occasion plenty of times in the past – his brace against Germany at Euro 2012, the assist for Sergio Aguero against QPR and that brace against Manchester United.
But the truth was that ‘Super Mario’ had burned too many bridges in recent years with ill-advised moves and ill-mannered fallouts.
Still, few Italy fans would have begrudged him a Hollywood ending. After all, that was kind of how his football career began: like something out of a movie.
Balotelli’s background is well-documented; the son of Ghanaian parents born in Palermo, Mario Barwuah and his family later moved to Brescia where he was ultimately placed under the foster care of Silvia and Francesco Balotelli, eventually adopting their surname as his own.
What’s perhaps highlighted less, however, is just how much of a sensation Super Mario was from a scarily young age.
At 15, he was already turning out for the Lumezzane first team in Serie C1, becoming the youngest player to ever play in the third tier of Italian football after being granted an exemption to play by the Italian Football Federation.
Inter’s Mario…
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