He recently thwarted Mario Balotelli’s pursuit of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He was even shocked by the amount of negativity towards the Swede. However, the Turkish Adana football player continued in the same rhythm.
This time the topic was the Italian national team. It is widely suspected that Balotelli was banned by one of the players or the Football Association from playing for Italy, but let’s go in order.
The controversial 33-year-old striker admitted that he rarely watches the matches of the national team.
“I don’t look at Italy anymore. It hurts too much. I used to hate the people involved in the team because I wanted the same. I owe a lot to Roberto Mancini, as he does to me. The match with North Macedonia caused me the most pain. I don’t think I will ever recover from that elimination.”
That semi-final of the playoffs to go to the World Cup in Qatar was also the last time that Balotelli received an invitation to join the Italian national team.
“I took responsibility that we didn’t go to Qatar despite not even playing in the game. Some older players did not have the courage to do the same”.
“I took responsibility that we didn’t go to Qatar despite not even playing in the game. Some older players did not have the courage to do the same”.
And that’s where Balotelli comes in. He tells how certain players or someone from the top of the Football Association banned him from playing for Italy.
“After the group stage, Mancini told me that he guaranteed me that I would be invited to the national team. After the match against North Macedonia, he never called me again and I never got an explanation for it. Probably some players didn’t want me on the team since Roberto didn’t do it on his own. I claim that 100 percent. Someone from the top of the Association or one of my teammates no longer wanted me in the Italian national team.”
Interestingly, Balotelli hopes to still wear the Azzurro jersey.
“After that, I thought about retiring from the national team, but when it comes to dry quality, there is no one like me. I will never give up on Italy. I would even accept not being a starter because I know no one would make a difference like me even coming off the bench. Spalletti is an ideal coach, the only problem is that he doesn’t have much time to implement ideas in the team”, concluded Balotelli.
As if the Italians didn’t have enough betting scandals, Mario is here to further shake the foundations…
